Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers are deep into the season, it’s time to take stock of where the team stands. Specifically, where Steelers players stand individually based on what we have seen and are seeing over the course of the regular season as it plays out. A stock evaluation can take a couple of different approaches and I’ll try to make clear my reasoning for each one. In some cases, it will be based on more long-term trends. In other instances, it will be a direct response to something that just happened. Because of this, we can and will see a player more than once over the course of the season as we move forward.
Player: ILB Mark Robinson
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The rookie seventh-round draft pick got the opportunity to dress on Sunday and was afforded what may well prove to be his only defensive snaps of the season. Starting linebacker Myles Jack was down, and Robinson got the chance to see seven defensive snaps, looking basically how you would expect—the good and the bad.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans have been wanting to get a look at rookie seventh-round linebacker Mark Robinson for a while now, at least ever since he opened some eyes with his relentlessness during training camp and the preseason.
While he saw a very small handful of snaps on special teams in one of the two games for which he had previously dressed, it wasn’t until Sunday, in Week 15, that he finally got the opportunity to get on the field, starting with the team’s second drive.
There’s probably not too much to say about it, at least beyond what we’ve already said. He didn’t make his way to the stat sheet officially, but he sure found himself around the ball at every possible opportunity, leaning a shoulder into it when possible.
A former running back with a college reputation of being a big hitter, that’s basically what he looked like—including in one situation that showed that he’s still got some learning to do when it comes to understanding the nuances of dropping into zone coverage.
But the Steelers didn’t draft him to be a coverage linebacker. Like it or not, first and foremost they drafted him because they think he can go screaming down the field and wallop a return man—that is, he can be a good special teams player.
He didn’t even get that role this year, stuck at the bottom of the depth chart, but he can move up next year, especially with Devin Bush, Robert Spillane, and everybody’s favorite, Marcus Allen, all free agents next year.
There could be a future for Robinson in Pittsburgh. It’s impossible to know at this point. And Sunday’s game didn’t really tell us much one way or the other. If it did anything, it showed what we already knew: he loves to hit. Perhaps it also showed the stage isn’t too big for him, but that needs a larger sample size.
