Maurice Jones-Drew: The Jaguars miss James Robinson right now

The Jacksonville Jaguars somehow find themselves in the postseason race with four weeks left in the 2022 season, despite their 5-8 record.

If the Jaguars can make up one game on the plummeting Tennessee Titans over the next three weeks, a Week 18 matchup at TIAA Bank Field between the division rivals would likely decide the AFC South champion.

With Jacksonville playing meaningful football in the month of December for the first time in five years, former Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew says one of the team’s midseason trades is aging poorly.

“I want to say this — and I get it there’s reasons, you got a fifth-round pick for guy that was undrafted — but this is why you need James Robinson on your roster. This time of the year,” Jones-Drew told Brent Martineau on ESPN 690. “You need a guy that you can lean on, a bigger guy who can run downhill.

“It’s always important to have those guys on your roster. The reason the Tennessee Titans have won the division so many times as of late is because they have a back who’s 250 pounds that runs downhill.”

Robinson rushed for 1,837 yards and scored 18 touchdowns over his first two seasons with the Jaguars. After starting the 2022 season with 340 rushing yards and four touchdowns in his first seven games, Robinson was traded to the New York Jets for a sixth-round pick that has a dwindling chance at becoming a fifth-rounder.

After running for 65 yards in his first two games in New York, Robinson has tumbled down the team’s depth chart and was a healthy scratch in two of the last three weeks.

The trade initially worked out well for the Jaguars when running back Travis Etienne Jr. racked up 265 rushing yards and three touchdowns in his first two games after the deal. But Etienne has managed only 134 yards and 3.1 yards per carry in his last four games and hasn’t scored a touchdown over that stretch.

It seems both teams may have been better off without ever making the trade in the first place.