With 2023 training camp underway, the goal of these articles is to take news we are hearing, be it a quality practice, where players are lining up, etc., and using that as a launching board to learn more about our 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers. One caveat before I dive in: We, of course, do not want to make huge proclamations in the short term and see how the entirety of camp unfolds.
Safety Kenny Robinson made some noise at Pittsburgh’s fourth training camp practice, highlighted by two interceptions, no doubt an impressive feat for any player on the depth chart. Let’s take this opportunity to learn more about Robinson.
Pro Bio: Drafted in 2020 by the St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL, he started all five games in that coronavirus-shortened season. Then, he was selected in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers, bouncing to and from the active roster and the practice squad his three seasons with the team (2020-2022). Robinson’s NFL regular-season action was very limited, starting with just six total defensive snaps his rookie year. He saw his most defensive snaps (182) by far in 2021 and did not appear in a game last season.
So, Robinson has just 188 defensive snaps across three NFL seasons. He played seven games in 2021, with some opportunities midseason, most of those coming the final three games of the year.
While the sample size is small, I wanted to see if there was anything of value to learn regarding Robinson’s 2021 season when he played most of his snaps. I looked at several data points from Pro Football Focus (PFF), looking at safeties with a minimum of 150 snaps (118 qualifiers). Here is how he fared: 60.2 defensive grade (73rd), 74.7 run defense grade (T-28th), 66.3 tackle grade (62nd), 55.9 pass rush grade (T-83rd), 55.7 coverage grade (83rd), 12 tackles (T-109th), 11.8 missed tackle rate (T-64th), four stops (T-95th), one target, which was the least among qualifiers but was unfortunately caught for a 12-yard touchdown, meaning no interceptions or pass breakups either. A positive was no penalties.
Not eye popping to say the least, but where Robinson fared best was in run defense according to PFF, a common theme to several moves regardless of position for Pittsburgh recently.
Let’s examine his run-defense grade that tied for 28th in the 2021 season further, first viewing run-defense snaps along with average depth of tackle, including current and former Steelers for context:
One important overall takeaway jumps out first: With more run defense snaps comes more yardage on average tackle depth overall as expected, especially at the safety position where many players play well off the line of scrimmage. Minkah Fitzpatrick is a great example of this point, compared to Terrell Edmunds, who played much more in the box. Current Steeler Damontae Kazee fit the bill of deep safety for the Cowboys in 2021, playing 84.2 percent of his defensive snaps at free safety, with an eerily similar average tackle depth that ranked one spot lower than Fitzpatrick (100th) out of 110 qualifiers with a minimum of 60 run snaps. He unfortunately recently sustained an ankle injury though hopefully nothing too serious. It does open the door for more opportunities for Robinson and others, at least in the short term.
We see some prime candidates at the top left of the chart. These three safeties are currently on Pittsburgh’s roster and had less than 200 run snaps and average tackle depths of six or less in 2021. This includes Robinson, who had the least run snaps of the focused players and was third in our sights with a 5.9 average tackle depth that tied for an above average 33rd league wide. It is important to reiterate the low opportunities he had but played the most of his total defensive snaps at free safety (68.2 percent), along with time in the box (16.5 percent) and slot corner (12.6 percent), adding optimism to his average tackle depth against the run.
Let’s compare that to Elijah Riley and Tre Norwood. Riley notably had the most run-snap opportunities of this group (188), topping the entire list of focused players with a 3.7 average tackle depth in 2021, and ranked an impressive eighth leaguewide. His defensive alignments shed important context to his strong tackle depth, playing a close split of his total defensive snaps at free safety (39.9 percent) and the box (39.4 percent), along with some time at slot corner (16.8 percent), playing closer to the line of scrimmage on average in his last season with substantial defensive snaps (just 20 for Pittsburgh last year). Norwood lands in a similar spot to Robinson on the chart, edging his results slightly with 82 run snaps and a 5.3 average tackle depth (T-22nd). He played much more in passing situations overall in 2021, and his defensive alignments in totality were quite different: 50.5 percent at slot corner in 2021, with 28.1% at free safety, and 18.8 percent in the box. Very important context as we dive deeper and the 2023 outlook.
Another strong aspect of Robinson’s run defense in 2021 was encouraging to find, missed tackle rate and stop percentage, which provides a hit-or-miss type of view for safeties in the run game:
Right away a positive jumps out for Robinson: a zero percent missed tackle rate in the run game, compared to his overall 11.8% missed tackle rate in all situations earlier (T-68th) on two missed tackles in the pass game. Again, a small sample size but good context as we learn nonetheless. His 3.2 stop percentage was also slightly above average (T-42nd), third among highlighted players. Interestingly, the three safeties above the mean in both data points are current Steelers, and the safeties from the top left of the first chart. Norwood also had a zero percent missed tackle rate, but important to recall he and Robinson had the least run snaps of the focused players. Norwood had a stronger stop rate than Robinson (3.8 percent), ironically tying for 29th in the NFL with Riley. The latter ranked lower in the missed tackle results, which is expected on more run-snap opportunities at 6.7 percent, which tied for 30th leaguewide.
The remaining focused players were below average in one aspect or another, with Kazee notably below average in both. He had a 14.8 percent missed tackle rate that ranked a low 74th, and a 1.7 stop percentage that landed at 76th. Pittsburgh’s starting safeties in 2021 (Fitzpatrick and Edmunds) land on the bottom right, above average in missed tackle rates but below the mean in stop rates, where Fitzpatrick bottomed the list of focused players and tied for 83rd in the NFL.
To close, I’ll circle back to the PFF run defense grades for the players we’re focused on (out of 118 qualifying safeties):
Seeing the focused players run defense ranks across the NFL put a nice bow on everything found in the study. Fitzpatrick ranked sixth in the NFL at the position, while Norwood tied for 15th. It will be interesting to see how they grade out in 2023, considering Fitzpatrick followed this up with another strong 82.2 grade that ranked 11th last season, while Norwood dropped all the way to a 60.3, which ranked 70th.
Robinson ranked third in 2021 among the highlighted safeties. While the main motivation to dive into the study on him was the two-interception practice, this would be great for him to display and complement that performance as the pads come on. Here’s to hoping he can do just that after not appearing in an NFL game last year. Riley was next up in 2021, ranking 44th league wide in run-block grade, while Kazee came in well below at 92nd, but trended very positively in 2022 with a 79.6 grade that tied for 14th — an excellent improvement that he can hopefully play closer to in the Black and Gold. Former Steeler Terrell Edmunds bottomed the 2021 run defense grades, at an extremely low 116th rank that was the third worst at the position, following that up with an improved 63.4 grade that tied for 59th last season.
Another name that did not appear in this study is Keanu Neal, due to the Cowboys playing him at linebacker in 2021. Neal struggled as a run defender at the linebacker position that season, with a 28.1 run defense grade that ranked third worst out of 114 qualifying linebackers, with former Steeler linebacker Devin Bush being the worst in the NFL that year. In 2022 with the Bucs, Neal improved to a 52.5 grade at the safety position, but still ranked a low 89th among his peers.
There are obviously several candidates competing to fill out the 2023 Steelers depth chart at safety. As noted at the beginning of the article, the goal today was not to make any major proclamations. I hope you enjoyed learning more about Robinson, what he could possibly provide if things play out well for him the rest of training camp, along with the rest of the position group. One thing’s for sure, I can’t wait to see how things pan out at safety for the Steelers in 2023.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
