Steelers Showing Interest in Versatile DB Jammie Robinson

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NFL Draft class is particularly strong at the cornerback position with a couple of safeties that offer some positional versatility for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Florida State's Jammie Robinson is one of the more flexible defensive assets available in this year's crop, playing heavy snaps all over the defense - in the box, in centerfield, or in the slot.

The versatile defensive back said that he had already met with the Steelers informally and had an upcoming formal meeting set up with Pittsburgh as well. Robinson had the opportunity to meet head coach Mike Tomlin at the Senior Bowl in Mobile and had nothing but great things to say.

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"I met him in person, shook his hand. It's crazy because he's a black head coach and there's not many black head coaches in the NFL," Robinson said. "Knowing how today's world is, being a black head coach is amazing, so I definitely took that meeting and it still stuck with me to this day. I was very fortunate to meet with him."

When asked about potentially pairing up with Minkah Fitzpatrick, he responded, "Minkah is very versatile and a ballhawk."

Shortly after, Robinson gave another highly touted safety that he shaped his game after.

"A player that I look up to a lot is Tyrann Mathieu just because he's undersized, a god, smart with high IQ, fast, physical and versatile for sure," he said.

Not many people understand just how difficult it can be to have to play so many different positions over the course of the game. Robinson explained some of those challenges and the things that he's looking for pre-snap.

"Pre-snap, it's the split. I'll be at like four yards and I'll look at the split from off the has. If he's inside the hash, you're probably going to get an under route or a slant route. If he's outside the hash, you tend to get a lot of outside fades or outside breaking routes," Robinson said. "I'll tend to line up outside for that depending or it'll depend on what kind of coverage we're in so I'll use our safety for that. There's really many tendencies that you get."

In order to be a capable slot defender, you must be able to defend multiple different body types, and Robinson adjusts his approach depending on the competition.

"If it's a twitchy guy, since I'm twitchy too, I tend to get hands on those guys to slow them down early," Robinson said. "If it's a guy that has average speed, I can be more calm and settled in my scooch technique. The way that I play man, it's a scooch technique, it's kind of like a gather but it's not a pedal at all and we just try to get contact within five yards."

Robinson spoke at length about his tough upbringing, one without a present father.

"One of my brothers passed away when he was just five years old. One of my brothers got sentenced to ten years in prison when I was ten years old," Robinson said. "My oldest brother has eight kids and my younger brother actually lived with me in Tallahassee (while at Florida State)."

He gave all the credit to his mom for providing for their entire household growing up.

Through all of the adversity, Robinson has turned himself into a potential top-50 NFL Draft selection this offseason. After sitting in on his media podium scrum, it's hard to imagine Robinson not standing out in a positive way during the interview portion with teams, including Pittsburgh.

The Steelers made a huge splash for a young, versatile safety a few years ago by acquiring Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins. We'll find out in a couple of months whether or not they elect to add even more flexibility to the back end.

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