METAIRIE, La. -- A year ago, running back Khiry Robinson was being touted as a breakout candidate. This summer, he appears to be more of an odd man out after the New Orleans Saints invested heavily in fellow backs Mark Ingram and C.J. Spiller.
But Robinson insisted that he hasn’t let any of those outward projections get him too high or too low.
“It’s all good. It’s never low,” said Robinson, who is excited to be back to “100 percent” after an arm injury sidelined him for seven games last year.
“I’m the type of person, I’m gonna get what I get and do what I do with it. So whether it’s 20 carries or one carry, I’m gonna do the best of my ability every play,” said the third-year pro, who cracked the Saints' roster as an undrafted tryout player out of West Texas A&M in 2013.
Robinson, 25, has proven an ability to seize his opportunities so far.
When Ingram was injured early last season, Robinson ran for a total of 245 yards in three games -- including a game-winning 18-yard touchdown run in overtime against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 5.
In 2013, Robinson stepped up big in the playoffs when Pierre Thomas was hurt, running for 45 yards on eight carries as he helped run out the clock in a playoff win at Philadelphia. That’s when Saints coach Sean Payton revealed that his mentor, Bill Parcells, compared the hard-running, 6-foot, 220-pound Robinson to Hall of Famer Curtis Martin.
But Robinson’s rise stalled last year because of the broken arm, which limited him to a total of 12 carries for 32 yards over the final 10 weeks.
Worse yet, Ingram spent those final three months of the season proving he could be an every-down, No. 1 type of back. Instead of letting Ingram go in free agency, the Saints re-upped in a big way, signing Ingram to a four-year, $16 million contract.
The Saints did let Thomas go, but they replaced him with Spiller, who will likely split time as a runner and receiver out of the backfield.
Robinson insists he’s undaunted, though.
“I just gotta keep working,” said Robinson, who needs to keep developing other areas of his game like pass protection and receiving. “It’s all love in the backfield. We all work together, try to help each other. So I think it’s a good thing we’ve got a full backfield again. So if anybody goes down, we’ve got another player right up there to do the same thing.”