Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Robinson didn't play when I was there - back issue, IIRC.
That's actually my biggest concern with him - lingering injuries. I worry, like SNR, that he'll be a guy that's constantly dinged and we'll hear excuses for him all year about bad hamstrings or a bad back keeping him from making the play. That said, when I was at camp I did notice that Robinson was an excellent teammate. He was constantly working with the guys out there.
Chiefs fans keep focusing on McCluster beating him up last year without looking at the entirety of his work. When you look at what he did over the entire year, he was actually a solid player, if an erratic one. After getting abused in week 1 and 5, he only surrendered one more TD in coverage all season. Moreover, with Grimes going down, Robinson was forced back out to
an island and frankly, I just don't think he has the skills for that anymore. He still did a credible job out there though.
And you're absolutely right - teams are going to attack him, but again, it's all relative. Teams are going to attack whoever we put in as the NCB. The only way Robinson is "costing us games" is if he's failing in ways other similarly situated players wouldn't have. So it gets back to my original question - who's better at NCB?
You can argue that the Chiefs should have been - had they not traded Arenas. But that's a gripe for Dorsey, not Robinson. Robinson didn't make the trade. You can gripe that Robinson's overpaid - but again, that's a Dorsey problem, not Robinson. Personally, I'd have preferred see DRC brought in, but we'd have a similar cast of characters saying that he sucks, blah blah blah. DRC is on a 1 yr deal for $5 million whereas realistically, Robinson is on a 1 yr deal for about $4.75 or a 2 yr deal for $8.1. Those are both a little high to me, but not catastrophic.
Ultimately the problem is where we're starting from. We had holes to fill everywhere and only a few draft picks and FA to do it with. With so many holes we couldn't go after high priced FAs and the cheaper ones aren't ideal. FAs, but their definition, are guys that other teams didn't feel were good enough to find a way to keep and when you need to bring in 5 of them, you
have to spread the money out pretty thin. Robinson, DRC, anybody else available as FAs in that price range were going to have warts. DRC's were that he wouldn't hit anyone and for a NCB, that's trouble - I want some physicality in my slot CB and it appears Dorsey does as well. So it's about choosing the warts that fit your team.
In the end, however, we have to live with the warts because this team was hot garbage. So while I wouldn't have chosen Robinson over other options, he's still a guy that's going to make this team better and frankly, he's a guy that was available.
In terms of pure talent and ability on the field, Robinson's no worse than an average NCB and I'd say he has a chance to be substantially better. The Broncos are better there than we are (Harris) and really, that's about it. Until Robinson's out there blowing coverages that the average NCB doesn't blow, I can't say he's 'costing us games'.
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