With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we have turned our attention to the offseason. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on broader contexts, reflecting on a player’s development, either positively or negatively, over the course of the season. Other evaluations will reflect only one immediate event or trend. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: ILB Mark Robinson
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: It may be a minor thing, but Mark Robinson putting some ball skills and playmaking ability on tape during OTAs will not hurt his campaign to get on the field more. Considered a run thumper, he will need to show the ability to play in coverage to gain the coaches’ trust. At the same time, he has the benefit of additional playing time because Cole Holcomb is only practicing on a limited basis right now.
It’s generally unwise to make too much about a play made during OTAs, especially when it’s not captured on video to analyze. But the fact that people are talking about second-year inside linebacker Mark Robinson picking off a pass by quarterback Kenny Pickett and taking it in for a touchdown suggests it was at least a decent play.
A lot of intercepting a pass comes down to two simple things: knowing where you’re supposed to be and having the ability to catch the ball when it comes your way. Robinson managed to do those, which is no small thing, and then had the presence of mind and athleticism to flip the switch and become a ballcarrier to make a play for the defense.
And he was possibly only on the field for that particular snap to make that play because free agent signing Cole Holcomb is being brought along slowly after having foot surgery last year. Odds are he was working with the starting defense when it happened, for which Holcomb, when healthy, would likely have been in his place.
Whether that’s the case or not for that particular play, it benefits Robinson more generally that Holcomb is not working at full capacity right now, because it is affording the young pro more opportunities to get reps, and thus to get better.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Picking off a pass during OTAs is simply proof of concept. He’s shown that he can make a play like that, even if in a limited, football-in-shorts context. That makes the coaches feel a little bit better, maybe makes them more likely to give him other opportunities.
Now he has to keep taking advantage of them, taking steps forward, showing that he can handle whatever they throw at him. There’s still a long way to go, but he’s been trending in the right direction since late in his rookie season when he evidently showed enough to earn some playing time in the last few games.
