Demarcus Robinson: think Dwayne Bowe with hands and moves after the catch. That’s wide receiver Demarcus Robinson for the Kansas City Chiefs. While DBowe had 900 plus yards receiving during his rookie year, DRob had six snaps with zero yards on offense but played well on Special Teams learning to be one heck of a gunner. While DBowe may have had an inch on Robinson, Demarcus is quicker and has some lateral moves Bowe never had. So, why wasn’t Robinson given a chance at wide receiver last year? The simple answer is that there were too many experienced bodies ahead of him on the depth chart. However, now that Jeremy Maclin is playing for the Baltimore Ravens, the Chiefs are looking elsewhere for contributors at the wideout position and Demarcus Robinson may just end up being “That Guy.”
One underappreciated aspect of Demarcus Robinson game has been his superior athleticism. No, I’m not calling him a freak but his overall athletic ability is probably the best out of all the Chiefs wide receivers. It’s one big reason I think he’ll be a contributor in 2017 and apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks that:
Demarcus Robinson will be somebody to watch. Heard great things out of OTA’s. Time to put the pads on.
— Matt Hearn (@ChiefsfAN4LyFe) July 18, 2017
Robinson was also interviewed on WHB 810 radio to which one fan responded,
@md_1010xl @footballdiehard Listening to the show you guys did Sat & I think Demarcus Robinson will be the guy to make noise for the Chiefs
— Jeramine Weaver (@_JWEAVE_) June 17, 2017
Wesley Roesch at USAToday ChiefsWire.com says, “Robinson paid his dues on special teams in his rookie season, so look for him to (hopefully) take a step forward in his second year as an offensive contributor.” Actually, there’s not much to go on when considering projecting Robinson to be a “major” contributor in 2017. However, it is interesting that the same week that Jeremy Maclin was cut loose, the Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said this in reference to Robinson:
“He’s the young one that’s come up here a little bit and had a pretty good offseason. We’ll see how he does once we get going during the offseason. He can go after it. He’s physical. He can run and do the short stuff too. His strength coming in was… he was good after the catch.”
What’s more interesting is that Reid also said this when referring to Maclin’s release: “But for that to take place, we’ve got to have confidence in the guys we have here.” Now, whether it’s Tyreek Hill and Chris Conley or it’s Demarcus Robinson that Reid’s referring to doesn’t matter much. What is important is that the Chiefs will be excepting someone to step up and fill the void and they believe their guys can get the job done… enough to feel comfortable with letting their #1WR walk away.
That… has created a hole in the lineup. One that Demarcus Robinson is hoping to fill. During OTA’s he said,
“I had a great day today. It was just going out there and trying to compete. I’m trying to prove whatever I can to get on the field. It’s always about competing and showing the coaches what you can do. I mean, whether it’s on the field or off the field, it’s just knowing what you’ve got to do. I think today was a good way to get started.”
Robinson then stated what his goals for OTA’s were,
“Just letting them know that I’m well acquainted with the playbook—the plays, the audibles and everything we’re going to call. It was just getting into the playbook more to let them know that I know what I’m doing.”
Earlier, in the middle of Andy Reid’s comments, he said, “He can go after it” and he’s referring to Robinson going up and fighting for the ball. I think Chiefs fans will be pleased to watch Robinson fight off defenders and come away with the ball. It’s one of his better skills. Here’s a tweet from B.J. Kissel on one of Robinson’s catches during OTA’s,
Nice shot from @65TPTPhotog on the top throw and catch of the day from Alex Smith to @honeythunder14, who had a big day on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/cJixUnOCzW
— BJ Kissel (@ChiefsReporter) May 24, 2017
A year ago the Chiefs selected Robinson in the fourth round with the 126th pick in the draft out of Florida where he had some off-field issues. Joel Thorman of ArrowheadPride shared a piece in June of 2016 about what some area Scouts had said about Demarcus Robinson including statements about his off-field problems. One said,
“He’s a gifted kid but you’ve got to get past all the off-the-field stuff,” another scout said. “He has a whole slew of things but somebody will ignore it. Third round.”
Yet another Scout added,
“Wonderlic of 15. I don’t care. He is (expletive) talented. You should see him run after the catch.”
Without all the off-field folderol interfering with Robinson’s real on-field value — because after a year of staying out of trouble with the Chiefs — he could have been an early second round selection and now his real on field value could be as a starter. Who knows, maybe he could have been drafted even higher if he’d stayed in school for his senior season without getting into any other off-field problems.
In the following video, my favorite moves of Robinson’s come at 0:30 when he makes a great jab-step move to elude three tacklers… an excellent inside cut to evade tacklers is at 1:34 and… a terrific one-hand catch can be found at 2:28. …
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