The Phinsider
With the 21st pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins selected Penn State edge rusher Chop Robinson. What do the draft guides say of Robinson?
The Miami Dolphins opened their 2024 NFL Draft process with the selection of Penn State edge rusher Chop Robinson. The selection provides an athletic player with the potential to be one of the elite players in his draft class. But he is not a perfect prospect, with questions surrounding his production at Penn State and his ability to stop the run.
With the pick made on Thursday night, we take a look Friday morning at what the pre-draft profiles said of Robinson. What can we expect to see of Miami’s newest player in 2024 and beyond?
Chop Robinson projects as a high-volume rotational edge defender to start his career, but he has the upside to seize a starting job before his rookie contract is up.
Robinson has yet to live up to his athletic upside, however his potential is incredibly tantalizing. Few pass rushers can boast his blend of explosiveness and fluidity, or his versatility to play from a wide variety of alignments. Whether Robinson ever reaches his (considerable) ceiling will come down to whether or not he’s able to improve as a technician. Robinson has the potential to terrorize opponents’ backfields, but will need to consistently and efficiently defeat blockers to do so.
His speed will always make him a threat, but whether or not he becomes a “hit” will depend on if he can refine his technique to fully harness his athleticism.
Comparison: Micah Parsons
Edge defender who offers the type of elite athleticism we’ve seen from players like Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett. Robinson might not be as fast as Parsons, but he’s close. He’s ultra-twitchy with the explosiveness to get on top of blockers and overwhelm them in an instant. However, he will need to level up his hand skills and attack angles to reach his potential against NFL tackles. Robinson’s electric athletic traits alone should give him a floor as a good NFL starter. If he crafts a rush approach and learns to string moves/counters together, he could reach his ceiling as a destructive force capable of forcing teams to game plan around him.
Robinson is an extremely twitched-up edge rusher with limited production. He has average size but is incredibly explosive. As a pass rusher, he has excellent get-off quickness, but it looks odd because of his short/choppy steps. He will cause more stress for OTs when he learns how to lengthen his stride and gain ground. He flashes a nifty two-hand swipe maneuver and a push/pull move. He has some tightness that shows up when he gets to the top of his rush. His sack production is limited, but he was very disruptive in every game I studied. He was asked to drop into coverage on...
