Dolphins’ top pick uses speed to take the fast track to success
Chop Robinson was in middle school when he first realized he had a gift.
“I was playing D-tackle,” the newest Miami Dolphin said, “and I was just getting off the ball so fast that I was able to just run around the offensive lineman.”
From there, Robinson knew he had a future in the sport — and maybe a shot at the NFL, if he really focused on it. On Thursday, Robinson’s NFL dreams became reality when the Dolphins took the edge rusher with the No. 21 pick in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft and he arrived in Miami Gardens on Friday to finally take his first real step into his new life.
Coach Mike McDaniel and defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver greeted Robinson when he arrived in South Florida, and Robinson also got a chance to meet with fellow linebacker Bradley Chubb after also talking with linebacker Jaelan Phillips after the Dolphins drafted him Thursday. Even though he had only been a Dolphin for less than 24 hours, Robinson was already thinking about how he might slot into Weaver’s defense, and learn from Chubb and Phillips.
“Those are some guys I’ll be able to take some things from their game, add to mine,” Robinson said.
Robinson will complement theirs, too.
The freaky fast first step Robinson discovered when he was middle school has never gone away. A few years later, Robinson was the No. 22 prospect in the Class of 2021, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, largely because of the speed and quick-twitch ability he displayed at Quince Orchard in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He then was a major contributor for three years -- first as a freshman at Maryland and then for two seasons at Penn State, where he generated the sixth best pressure rate in the country last season -- and one of the true eye-popping performers at the NFL Scouting Combine in April, running the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds and leaping 10 feet, 8 inches in the broad jump.
The 6-foot-3, 254-pound edge rusher is an unusual combination: He has only ever been a lineman — first a center in his youth and then a defensive end for the rest of his career — and yet he runs like someone who moved to the position after years of playing wide receiver or tight end.
“It’s all natural,” Robinson said. “I feel like me and my brothers were always fast, but I was able to adapt to it.”
Those brothers surely helped, too. Robinson is the third youngest of 10 siblings, so he always had older brothers to look up to and run around with, and, most importantly, to race to the dinner table.
“You had to get to the kitchen table as fast as you can,” Robinson said, “because some people had to eat on the stairs.”
He never got too big for those humble beginnings, either.
Robinson’s statistical resume does not have the look of a first-round edge rusher. Robinson had only 60 tackles and 11 1/2 sacks in his three years playing in the Big Ten Conference, and only 15 tackles, 7 1/2 tackles for loss and four sacks last year.
Those numbers do not tell the whole story, though. Last year, Robinson also generated pressure on 18 percent of his snaps and anchored one of the best defenses in country, despite playing only about 30 snaps per game.
If Robinson has a glaring flaw, it’s the lack of volume to his production and that he as mostly limited to a rotational role throughout his college career. As a rookie, that won’t be much of a concern and Robinson already has the right attitude to do whatever Miami asks of him.
Said Robinson: “It’s just me doing my job.”
