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Jammie Robinson draft profile

Florida State safety, Jammie Robinson (his first name is pronounced "JAY-me" is from a small town in Georgia called Cordele. Former Rams WR, Preston Dennard, is also from Cordele. Dennard was the leading receiver on the 1979 Rams team that played in the Super Bowl against the Steelers. A skinny UDFA in 1978, Dennard was courted by several NFL teams after the draft, but was enticed to sign with the Rams for the princely sum of a $1,500 signing bonus. In today's NFL, a highly sought after UDFA not only gets a signing bonus, but it is customary for teams to guarantee all or most of their base salary. Even if we adjusted Dennard's bonus for inflation, compared to how much he probably could have gotten in today's game, I'd guess he would have been guaranteed 25 times the amount he got back then, paid even if he failed to make the roster. The money is so enormously different than what it was back in those days, even for a back of the roster type prospect. Dennard found success after his playing days were over. He lives in Albuquerque, NM and is the director of marketing for a sports surface company.

Cordele is an extremely poor community. The AJC had an article in 2018 discussing how Cordele ranked as the poorest town in the state of Georgia. About half of the households are below the poverty line. Only about 1 out of 10 adults graduated from college. Two thirds of the community is black. There is a high rate of households with no father present in the home.

It is easy to root for Robinson. On the field, he is an ultra-aggressive, physical hitter. PFF said that Robinson was arguably the most complete safety in the draft. Off the field, Robinson is a mild mannered nice guy with a very close relationship to his mom, a single parent. Maybe Robinson could become another Preston Dennard. Not only might success in the NFL help Robinson and his family, but it could help lift up Cordele in general. Robinson's mom already has plans for how Robinson could give back to his hometown by helping to build a community center.

House of Straw

Perhaps the best free safety in the NFL is Kevin Byard of the Titans. Byard wasn't even invited to the Combine. A small school player from Middle Tennessee, he shot up draft boards after a good pro day workout, drafted at the very top of the 3rd round in 2016. In 2019, Byard became the highest paid safety in NFL history. Byard wasn't a starter to begin his rookie season. He was elevated to the starting job only when the initial starter got hurt in the middle of the year.

One reason Byard became the starting FS for the Titans was due to the "failure" of a 4th round pick taken 2 years prior, Marqueston Huff. Nolan Nawrocki had a round 2 to 3 draft projection on Huff. I thought he was one of the best safety sleepers in that draft. He played mostly CB in college, but started one year at FS and had 4.49 second speed. He also was a good special teams player.

Huff was waived after only 2 seasons. He played mostly special teams for the Titans. Failing to stick with 5 other NFL teams, Huff later was in the XFL. That 2014 draft was a very strong class on paper for safeties, but the end result wasn't as impressive as the high expectations for that group. My NFL comp for Jammie Robinson is a safety from that 2014 draft, but it isn't Huff.

Background

Name: Jammie Robinson. 4th year, bonus junior. 22 years old.

School: Florida State, transferred from South Carolina. Studied sport and entertainment management at SC.

Size: Listed 5'11'' tall, 203 pounds. Per NFLDB 9'' hands, 29'' arms, 72'' wingspan, 4.45 sec (40 time). Per SI 5'10'' tall, 197 pounds, 9' hands, 29'' arms, 72 1/4'' wingspan, 4.55 sec (40 time). Per TDN 4.55 sec (40 time)

3 star recruit. Hometown has population of about 10,000. Transferred to FSU after Will Muschamp and his staff got fired by South Carolina.

I'm not aware of any major injuries. In some games Robinson wore a compression sleeve on his left leg, but other games he didn't. I don't know the reason. Looking at the other DBs on the field, I wonder if this was just a fashion choice and they thought it looked cool. As far as I could tell, he didn't look like he had any type of injury.

Didn't opt out of team's bowl game. He showed loyalty to the program and to his team, expressed desire to help FSU try to get 10th win of season.

Solid interview, good kid, but I also get the impression that he's a bit young and naive about the world, a small town POV. Sometimes, I worry about draft prospects. Especially once they get some money, seems like there are always people who want something from them, but how many people are looking out for the player and his own future and best interests?

In terms of football, Robinson is very confident in himself and considers himself to be a student of the game. FSU coaches all used exactly the same word when praising his character, talking about his passion.

In 2021, his mom's home was severely damaged in a major house fire and they lost most of their possessions. FSU fans donated money to help them get back on their feet.

2019 (S.Car.) 62 tackles, FF, INT, 4 PDs, 1.5 TFLs

2020 (S.Car.) 74 tackles, INT, 4 PDs, 2 TFLs

2021 (FSU) 84 tackles, 2 FF, 4 INTs, 3 PDs, 7 TFLs

2022 (FSU) 99 tackles, INT, 5 PDs, 5 TFLs

ESPN 4th safety, 94th overall (late 3rd to 4th rd)

CBSSports 7th safety, 111th (4th rd)

PFF 3rd safety, 39th (2nd rd)

Drafttek 11th safety, 115th (4th rd)

Shane Hallam 91st (late 3rd rd)

Brian Bosarge 99th (late 3rd to 4th rd)

PFN 63rd (late 2nd to 3rd rd)

SI 4th round

TDN 3rd round

NFLDB 150th (5th rd)

Sports Illustrated: Hard hitting safety with very high ceiling. Outstanding vs run with ball skills to become an elite safety. Isn't great at man coverage and gets beat frequently. Fantastic field vision. Incredible closing speed, phenomenal ball skills. Skillset very comparable to Jordan Poyer (By the way, Poyer was a 7th round pick, I don't remember exactly why, I think he might have had an injury, hurting his draft stock. Poyer was waived in the middle of his rookie year by his first team, the Eagles, and was claimed by the Browns. So if he had actually been drafted earlier he would have been a wasted pick. Poyer didn't become a regular NFL starter until his 4th NFL season and he missed most of that season due to injury. Consequently, Poyer didn't start at least 8 games in a year and didn't play at least 500 defensive snaps in any season until his 5th year in the NFL. Poyer is an All Pro and Pro Bowl safety. He's consistently been a good safety for the Bills for the last 6 years. If I told you that Jammie Robinson would follow exactly the same career arc as Poyer, be a back of the roster to PS type as a rookie, then only a backup until his 4th season, in which round would you draft Robinson? Poyer is a very good example of how some players in the draft don't contribute much during their rookie deals, but become excellent players during their 2nd NFL contracts.) 4th round grade (I think it is odd that SI has such glowing praise for Robinson, yet they only give him a 4th round grade. If he's going to be an elite safety, why isn't he at least a 2nd round prospect?)

PFF: Arguably the most complete safety in the draft. Tremendous tackler. 4 year starter with 1,348 snaps in slot, 759 as deep safety and 633 snaps in the box. Had 80.1 PFF grade in 2022, 64th ranked safety in the country. Low 7.3% missed tackle rate in college career. One of highest floors in safety draft class. Best in the draft at adjusting on fly and breaking laterally to tackle. (See, PFF has him as an early 2nd round pick. Why doesn't SI have him ranked up there? Just seems completely arbitrary. By PFF's ranking, he could go right around where the Rams pick in the 2nd round.)

NFLDB: Physical gifts match any CB in draft, but rough around the edges on the field. Explosive quickness and speed. Best when attacking downhill. Flashes physicality as hitter. Effective as blitzer. Poor route recognition, hesitant and susceptible to double moves. Handsy when in trail technique. Too much cushion in off coverage.

TDN: Passionate, emotional leader for FSU. Excels closer to LOS. Better when used as robber in coverage. Questionable ball production, might not be reliable in NFL as deep safety. Man coverage concerns. A zone scheme strong safety. 3rd round grade.

Strengths

High energy, ultra-aggressive on field. Combative.

Trips WR formation, swing pass to that side to the RB in the flat. Robinson is the slot CB and he pancakes the blocking WR, then nearly grabs the ankle of the RB. Some of his plays on tape are like that, your eyes get wide, like "Did he actually just do that? I have to watch that again, that can't be what just happened. Okay, I guess he did it."

Violently rips at the football, trying to cause fumbles.

Sometimes a heavy tackler, despite being on small side for a safety. Has play strength bigger than listed size.

RB tries to cut block him in pass protection, but he runs over the RB.

Tie game in 4th quarter, medium 3rd down in red zone. Robinson is the safety and has to pick up the WR in coverage when the CB goes on a blitz. This is a tough play, because the S is going towards the outside and has to be prepared if the WR goes to the corner or up the seam, but the WR runs a slant route to the inside, in the opposite direction from where the S is coming from. Robinson drives on the slant, arrives simultaneous with the pass arriving, gets his arm around the inside of the WR and deflects the ball away for a great PBU. That is a big time play. You can't do it any better than that.

Very good forward short area burst to trigger forward from the slot against a QB run.

Versatile player asked by coaches to perform wide variety of jobs on defense and play multiple spots and he embraced each task. Often used as deep safety, but also covered WRs and TEs as a slot DB. Sometimes blitzed from next to the defensive line. Occasionally was used as a hybrid LB inside the box against certain opponents, typically on 3rd downs. He moved around the defensive formation in the same offensive series, so quite a few times I had to watch the same play multiple times just to find where he was positioned.

Came on blitzes both from edge of box, next to DL and from deep position as safety. Very aggressively attacks pocket and QB as blitzer.

Jumped on slant route as zone safety, wrestled ball away from WR for an INT.

Plays with passion and courage on the field. Fearless, doesn't back down from contact, willing to stick his nose into physical challenges and go to battle with bigger opponents. Robinson leaves it all out on the field, full effort to try to win the game. You might remember a couple of years ago I was doing a draft profile and discussed how it looked like something was broken in FSU's football culture. The team had no discipline, it looked like they had no pride and didn't even care about winning anymore. That's not Jammie Robinson, he's the type of guy the coach can point to and say if the defense had 11 guys like that on the field, the team could win 10 games every season. Robinson is a run through a brick wall for the team type of player. He's a good example of the type of player FSU needs to continue to bring into their program if they want to return to elite ranks of college football. Robinson didn't make "business decisions" and bow out of tackles, afraid of getting injured and how it might impact his NFL draft stock, he played in the Bowl game even when he could have left to start preparing for the draft. He's one of those guys who's "built different", with a both a physical and mental toughness to his approach to football.

Football is important to him. Strong football character and team oriented attitude. Very clearly has a chip on his shoulder, thinks that people doubt him and is out to prove them wrong. Motivated to succeed and provide for family.

Normal age for prospect, no known medical issues. Very experienced starter in college.

Traits to be a very good special teams player.

Weaknesses

It would be an understatement to say that Robinson has man coverage limitations. He's really bad at man coverage. No discipline in footwork, not enough balance to mirror and limit separation, even on very basic short routes that should be easy to cover.

Slot CB jumps inside and opens his hips on release by WR, then when WR breaks back to the outside, the CB has to wildly grab him. Slot CB put on heels by head fake, giving up separation. Slot CB opens hips inside and when WR breaks out, the CB tries to impede him with his hand, but misses, resulting in separation.

Against even basic speed outs where there is no fake by the WR or TE, then just run up a few steps then turn, he can't defend it, they consistently get open against him. One step slant, the CB playing inside technique is unable to mirror. Basic 3 yard out, slot CB's weight is so far back that at break point the CB goes flying backwards, there are 3 yards of separation by the WR even though there was no fake at all, the WR simply turned to the outside and the CB magically disappears.

Very basic 5 yard out. Slot CB using shuffle technique opens his hips, giving up separation at break, looks back and sees QB releasing pass, tries to go for deflection, but not even close to the ball and this poor gamble results in him not being able to make proper form tackle, because one arm is extended for the football, so he can only wildly grab the WR with his other arm, lucky to be able to fling WR to the ground from behind instead of the WR spinning out of the tackle.

Critical medium 3rd down in 4th quarter, the game is effectively over if the offense converts. This is a very common situation in an NFL game where the game is close late, but the defense faces a must stop. Robinson is matched up on a TE, who runs a basic 4 yard out pattern. CB is beaten, TE makes catch and runs up sideline, picking up the first down. On money downs, Robinson is liable to come up bankrupt in man to man pass coverage.

Often applied 2 handed jam on his guy more than 5 yards past the LOS, which won't be allowed in the NFL. Even this tactic didn't always work in college. Multiple times, a bigger WR or TE pushed him away, playing through the jam and creating separation at the top of the route. Some of his jams are clumsy and not effective. WRs create late separation and can uncover when QB extends the play. Handsy as deep safety, will grab WR to prevent separation. He's the S and has to pick up slot WR when the CB blitzes, blatantly grabs the WR for a pass interference penalty. Tried 2 handed jam on TE, but the TE breaks outside and separates with leverage, wide open.

Lacks awareness and route recognition when safety in zone coverage. RPO, the TE is running a post route and the FS should step towards the middle of the field to be in better position to intersect with the TE's route, but FS takes a step backwards, causing him to be split second late, unable to contest TD catch. RPO, after the fake handoff, Robinson hesitates and his feet freeze when what he should be doing is immediately gaining depth, because there is a deep over route coming to his side of the field from the slot WR on the other side of the formation, and the WR ends up wide open. You can't just focus on the QB and not look at anything else. In the NFL, the QB isn't going to stare down the WR for 3 seconds and lead you straight to the intended target. If he's going to rely on the QB's eyes, veteran QBs will manipulate him and cause him to go the wrong way, then throw the ball to a different WR.

Play action pass to the right sideline. The FS's feet freeze as the QB releases the pass, even though there is only 1 possible WR the QB could be throwing to in that area of the field, making the safety late to move in the direction of the action. Doesn't always stay deeper than the deepest WR, can be beaten over the top by WR coming from outside and going deep to the middle of the field in his area.

Fake pitch to RB, the TE pretends to block, then slips by the LB. Robinson as the safety should cover the TE, but he jumps forward, leaving the TE wide open, a potential huge gain, but the QB's pass is terrible.

He's in coverage on TE, there is a robber in the middle of the field and another safety behind them. The TE runs a short route towards the middle of the field, then stops. Robinson goes to the inside of the TE, which makes no sense. If he just stands on the outside, the TE would have been bracketed on 3 sides by the defenders, forming a triangle and if the TE tried to move away from Robinson the robber defender would have been all over it, maybe for an INT. Instead, all the TE would have needed to do is just pivot back out to the outside and he would have beaten the coverage, inexcusable when you have 3 defenders in that area. Not quick to process and switch to a different receiver when in pattern matching coverage.

A LB is covering the TE and Robinson is the safety in bracket coverage. LB playing outside technique, it is a short 3rd down. As the TE pushes upfield on the LB, the S should anticipate that the TE is trying to get inside leverage and position himself towards the inside, but Robinson is too deep. When the TE turns to the inside it is an easy catch for a first down.

Manipulated out of position by misdirection and play fakes. It is a fake power run to the right, then the TE reverses field and goes to the left for a shovel pass. The FS bites super hard on the fake and takes 6 steps forward, completely losing containment angle. Multiple plays, if the runner was hidden behind the OL or Robinson turned his head at the wrong moment, Robinson as the safety would lose sight of the ball and head in the wrong direction, moving too aggressively without first identifying who had the ball and where the runner was going. Fake jet sweep, Robinson in the box takes his eyes off the QB and loses sight of the ball.

As hybrid LB in box, Robinson was manipulated out of position by RPO fake with the QB reading him the entire way. Robinson starts in the middle of the field and he chases the RB all the way to the hashmark, vacating a big passing window for the pass to go to the receiver on the opposite hashmark, so when I say he's out of position, he wasn't even in the same zip code of where he needed to be in zone to help defend the pass.

Ball inside 10 yard line, play action, the TE runs upfield, the safety jumps forward and is flat footed as the TE goes by him, open in the end zone.

4th down play, man coverage and when WR goes in motion, the outside CB gets caught up in traffic. Robinson is the S to the play side, but he doesn't recognize the danger and when it is a play action pass to the WR, the CB is too late to get out to him.

His backpedal is clunky, stiff and poor from the safety position. Tempo of pedal is slow, body is too upright, struggles to maintain and shift balance so that he can change directions and transition smoothly. From pedal as FS, if he has to turn and run to the outside, he cannot fluidly flip his hips, so even as a Cover 2 safety, this caused him to be late to get to the WR. From pedal, he needed to drive forward on an intermediate crossing route over the middle of the field, but since his positioning was slightly off, instead of taking a direct path, he first had to take a lateral "course correction" step, wasting a valuable split second.

Since he can't pedal well as a CB, he often uses a shuffle technique, trying to shade or trail the WR, something that can be exploited by switch release moves. One play, the 2 WRs cross and Robinson has completely lost outside leverage on the route.

Poor spatial awareness, collides with other defenders in rub situations. Based on down and distance and formation, he should anticipate a potential wheel route by the RB, but safety is blind to potential rub and heavily collides with the CB, this contributes to multiple different receivers being wide open on 3rd down play. On run play, the umpire is standing in FS's path to the RB, but he doesn't show awareness to this, so when the FS jumps forward 2 steps, he then has to move sideways to avoid colliding with the ump, this delays him trying to go forward to fill and the RB gashes the defense up the middle for a nice gain. Robinson is a hybrid LB on the TE. He doesn't anticipate rub coming from the WR, resulting in a very easy completion to the TE in the flat.

At least a couple of his INTs were pretty cheap ones, including one on a Hail Mary pass. Doesn't have good instincts for how and when to get his head around to find the football when his back is to the QB in man coverage.

100% not a textbook tackler. Brings runners down with sheer aggression and effort, not with proper technique or disciplined attention to details. Takes questionable angles in run support and when closing down ball carriers for tackle attempts. Free safety's angle is too far to the inside, so when the RB cuts to the outside, FS enters the tackle from 90 degrees to the side of the RB, getting dragged forward for additional yardage. After catch by WR, Robinson angles too far to the sideline, so when the WR spins, the CB has to try to drag and pull him from behind instead of making the tackle by hitting him from the front. Zone run, CB cuts to the middle of the field, the deep FS comes up in support, his initial contact is 90 degrees from the side, his facemask ends up behind the RB, then he whips the RB around like a spinning carnival ride to make the tackle. Didn't hit RB square, helmet to the side and contact too high, so Robinson slipped off the tackle, but it didn't count as a miss, because the RB loses balance and falls down. Ducked helmet and missed tackle on WR who jumped cut to the side. Almost whiffed on tackle, but able to grab legs as the RB goes by. QB scrambles, safety flies in out of control and whiffs. Zone read, QB runs up middle, safety comes up but his angle is off and whiffs as the QB jump cuts to the outside and scores a TD. Tried to grab RB high, but comes up only with air as the RB ducks, gaining 4 yards instead of getting stuffed at the LOS. Didn't flatten around the RT on a blitz, misses the sack as the QB spins out of his tackle attempt. Is 1 vs 1 on QB and barely trips up the QB when the QB jump cuts, 3 yards after contact as QB stumbles forward. Nearly missed ankle tackle, entry angle too much to the side, barely able to trip up RB.

The RB breaks a tackle by a different defender and Robinson overruns the play, so he's not in position to make a cleanup tackle and prevent additional yardage, this didn't count as a "missed tackle", because he didn't even attempt a tackle, but essentially it is at least as bad, if not worse than an actual missed tackle. Way too aggressively overpursues the RB after catch, so when the RB breaks a tackle by a different RB, the S went flying by so far he went from being about a yard away from the RB to 6 yards away from the RB, out of position to contain, allowing the RB gain 20 more yards and score a TD. Exactly like the other play, it doesn't count as a missed tackle, because he never got into position to attempt a tackle, but he still messed up.

Critical 3rd down play, the RB catches a pass in the flat and gets strung out to the sideline by other defenders. The FS should have an easy clean up tackle, but he overruns the tackle, goes flying by out of control and the RB stumbles forward, picking up the first down. Again, this isn't technically a missed tackle, because the RB fell down, but it is a "failed tackle", because Robinson should have easily prevented the first down and he failed to make the play.

Final minute of 4th quarter, team trying to protect 7 point lead. Prevent coverage, pass thrown underneath, Robinson comes up out of control, misses the tackle, allowing the WR to tip toe the sideline for extra yardage. Same drive, offense has no timeouts left, 14 seconds left, Robinson as slot CB is way too soft in coverage, easy 10 yard gain with only 4 seconds coming off the clock and WR gets out of bounds. Eventually ball is on 2 yard line, 1 second left, final play, Robinson is the centerfield safety in the middle of the end zone. The outside WR beats the CB on a slant, Robinson's angle is too shallow instead of getting depth, it goes for potential game tying TD, but the extra point gets blocked and FSU still wins. Small inconsistencies in his game got exposed in critical situations.

Just puts shoulder charge into runners and makes zero attempt to wrap up on some hits. He does this even if he's just trying to make an assist to help other defenders who already have the runner in their grasps. Often misses with those sloppy "shoulder only" hits.

"Where are you?" He's late in run support filling his gap responsibility on some plays. Robinson is the FS on weak side and it is a zone run, a lane opens up and the RB breaks into the 2nd level. I watched that play many times and my estimate is that Robinson is a full 4 yards deeper than he should have been for his run fit, I don't understand what he was doing back there and why he didn't attack downhill. Poor angle in support put him out of position to stop a big run play.

Basic zone run, the TE on his side runs straight towards him, Robinson playing safety. Robinson does a "dance", taking 2 steps back, 1 step forward, then 2 steps backwards, before finally recognizing that it is a run and going forward in support. This snap really bothered me, because it was such a simple running play, the offense didn't do anything extra tricky, yet Robinson had so much trouble diagnosing whether it was a run or a pass.

Completely overpowered at times by blockers of different sizes and positions and struggles to stop bigger RBs carrying the ball. Gap run, the FS comes up in support and the outside WR comes inside to block him. Robinson is late to see him, but turns his head in time to take him on, but the WR shoves him in the chest and Robinson goes flying backwards as if he were a random bad guy in a martial arts movie. Gets bullied by offensive linemen, put on skates and driven backwards. Taken for a ride by TE block, driven way out of the play. Was no match for a RB on a short 3rd down, 1 vs 1 in the hole as the RB bangs through the FS. Critical 4th down late in 4th quarter, CB loads up and tries to hit RB right at marker, head to head collision, but not big enough and the RB falls forward, gaining the first down.

There was confusion in the back end at times with communication issues between FSU's DBs. I can't tell how much of this might have been on Robinson and how much of it was the fault of the other CBs. Outside WR goes inside, the TE goes outside and none of the DBs go with the TE, so he's 100% wide open for a TD. Half motion by WR from outside. Robinson as the safety sees it, but a full 3 seconds elapse between that moment and when the S raises his hands to make a signal to the CB to communicate coverage, the CB and S looking at each other as the ball is snapped. Another play, it looks like Robinson is trying to yell something at a CB who has his back to him, so Robinson at the S spot tries to run closer to the CB and is trying to communicate coverage right as the ball gets snapped.

Aggression creates potential for silly penalties. Heavy shoulder charge on RB who was being pushed out of bounds by a 2nd defender. Had what should have been a critical facemask penalty late in the 4th quarter against Florida as he was trying to sack the QB, but the refs didn't throw a flag. RB being tackled by 2 other defenders, Robinson launches himself into the air, going for a completely unnecessary shoulder hit to the RB's head area, but fortunately flies right over the RB, silly and the type of decision that could have resulted in a targeting penalty if he didn't time it well.

If his measurements are accurate, he has shorter arms with a limited wingspan. Compare his numbers with my NFL comp for him. Doesn't have prototypical size for a safety and doesn't have the short area agility to be a true slot CB, so he's a bit of a tweener.

Draft Grade and Pro Comp

5th round grade. Terrence Brooks (3rd round 2014, Baltimore Ravens, Florida State)

In 2014, the Rams drafted 3 safeties, Joyner, Mo Alexander and CB Bryant. The Rams got 2 of the first 8 safeties drafted that year. Brooks was "the other FSU safety" besides Joyner. Brooks was 5'11'' tall, 198 pounds, 31'' arms, 75'' wing, a 38'' vert jump and ran 4.42 seconds in the 40. Brooks had the 2nd best 40 time at the Combine among safeties and one of the best vertical jumps.

Ian Wharton for B/R compared Brooks to Eric Weddle, gave him a 2nd round grade and suggested that he could even slip into the bottom of the 1st round. He said that Brooks was the best deep FS in the draft, was rangy, read the QB in zone coverage, created PBU and INT opportunities, maintained disciplined gap integrity, had special teams experience, but was rarely in man coverage and lacked ideal size for a safety.

Nolan Nawrocki had a 4th to 5th round projection on Brooks. He saw Brooks as a hybrid safety, better as a robber or in the box, aggressive in run support, good speed, good football character, an inconsistent tackler, looks for big hits, but out of control, dropped INTs.

Brooks was a disappointing draft pick for the Ravens. He spent 8 seasons in the NFL as a journeyman backup. The Ravens waived him after 2 seasons.

Like Brooks, I'm not convinced that Robinson will become a good NFL starter, whether at safety or as a slot CB. He has the requisite level of aggression and physicality to be a quality NFL defensive back, but he has substantial issues with man coverage and even if you put him on a zone team, his "eyes" aren't good, he has trouble reading the play and anticipating where he should go and how to get there. Even once he arrives to the runner, his technique in tackling is unreliable and sloppy.

In my view, Brian Branch is a far better prospect than Robinson. The area where I'd give Robinson the edge over Branch is in aggression and physicality. Branch can be too passive at times, while Robinson's motor doesn't quit, he flies around the field almost to the point of being too aggressive and out of control.

Robinson is too raw for my taste. Maybe he has long term upside, but that still makes him a developmental project player who plays a position that isn't a premium one on an NFL roster.

Even if Robinson never becomes an elite, Pro Bowl level starter, I still think that Robinson can make a roster as a backup player. He should be a good special teams guy and he could be used as a box safety. In today's NFL, a "box safety" has very little value. IMO, it is like drafting a TE just to be a run blocker. Still, even if he were replacing a guy like Travin Howard (7th round pick) on the roster, there's still potential value there.

Jordan Fuller was a 6th round pick in 2020. My evaluation of him at the time he was picked was as follows: Outstanding on field football IQ and awareness, solid tackling fundamentals, balanced and good pedal, doesn't commit many penalties, good effective range on back end despite having slow 4.67 second 40 time, lacks aggression and physicality as hitter, not a ball hawk, man coverage limitations and is better in zone, sometimes hesitates instead of coming to the rescue. Fuller had mostly UDFA grades from the draft experts.

If you go through all of Fuller's traits, I'd argue that he was a better overall prospect than Jammie Robinson. Perhaps Robinson has more upside, because he has more explosive speed and is a more physical hitter, but Fuller is by far the more reliable and polished safety coming out of college. If it weren't for injuries, Fuller almost certainly would have been a starting safety for the Rams in 2022. Maybe he can return to health and regain his former form. Otherwise, there could be a substantial hole in the roster at the safety spot. Fuller had a 63.6 PFF grade and a rookie and had a strong 74.3 PFF grade in his 2nd season, 2021.

Draft experts really like Robinson. On nearly every draft board, Robinson is between a 2nd and a 4th round pick. Experts think he could end up being the best safety in this year's draft. They could be right, but I see him as a risky prospect, because he's a raw player, both against the pass and against the run. That's why I only have a Day 3 grade on this player. I don't think he's a plug and play guy. Needs more seasoning.

If the Rams were to draft Robinson, I'd urge fans to be patient with him. The most ideal situation for him might even be to sit behind a good veteran safety, watch and learn how to play the position from a guy who knows the ropes. Terrence Brooks never became the next Eric Weddle. Ironically, Weddle signed with the Ravens in 2016, the same year that they cut ties with Brooks. If I could pick a team for Robinson, I'd put him on a team with a guy like Eric Weddle, Brian Dawkins, Kevin Byard or Jordan Poyer. Maybe anywhere Ejiro Evero ends up coaching this year.