KAHUKU, Hawaii -- Jaguars receiver Allen Robinson isn't wasting his time with the arbitrary process of shifting from underrated wide receiver to properly rated wide receiver after his first Pro Bowl nod.
The Jaguars' leading pass catcher, part of a platoon of good young wide receivers alongside Allen Hurns and Marqise Lee, will be heading back to Jacksonville, after his stay in Hawaii, to start catching passes with his teammates. He wants to improve on an 80-catch, 1,400-yard, 14-touchdown season, if that's possible.
He wants the Jaguars in the playoffs.
"I sure hope so," Robinson told Around The NFL Thursday. "Especially for us offensively, we have high, high expectations. High expectations."
Robinson said that the stability at head coach was a big reason for his feelings. The Jaguars recently announced that Gus Bradley would return for the 2016 season and sign an extension that would lock him in through the 2017 season. Robinson said that Bradley's style of building up every player individually has contributed to his success so far.
"As a team, it was so awesome to hear that Gus was coming back," Robinson said. "As a young player, having such a positive coach and having him help me through a lot of different things -- I think it was great for me to be able to have that person to lean on because a lot of rookies, when they show up and get injuries, their coaches just throw them under the bus. But Gus didn't do that. He was adamant about keeping me abreast of what was going on, making sure I was traveling with the team in the preseason, all of that."
While the Jaguars will need to make the leap this season to keep the momentum alive, the fact that they're in this position in the first place is encouraging. Patience is a difficult virtue to maintain in the NFL, but the Jaguars have decided to cling to a model that is paying dividends for teams like Carolina. With a cadre of young stars in favor of keeping Bradley, there really isn't another option that makes more sense.
And keeping Robinson happy seems to be a good idea moving forward.
