Dolphins draft: Taking Chop Robinson proves these 4 realities for Miami in 2024

After months of folks playing GM by filling out mock draft after mock draft trying to get a lead on what Chris Grier and company might do with the #21 pick, the Miami Dolphins finally gave us a peak into their collective brain by drafting edge-rusher Chop Robinson.

I don't think many folks had the Miami Dolphins drafting Chop Robinson at #21. I know Peter Schrager released his mock draft, and Miami took Chop later in the 1st after a trade down. That didn't happen, but the Miami Dolphins went ahead and took the twitchy pass-rusher from Penn State.

Many are not in love with this selection. I myself am not in love with this selection. If you've been following along at all here, you know that I wanted the Miami Dolphins and Grier and the gang to load up on offensive linemen. There was a real chance that one of my favorite guys in the draft, a guy I didn't think would get to Miami at #21, Troy Fautanu, was going to fall in the Dolphin's lap. But alas, in classic Dolphins fashion, he went to Pittsburgh at #20.

Miami looked at their board and thought Chop Robinson was the way to go. Who knows if he was the BPA guy on their board at #21? The whole best player available thing is a tired argument due to how suggestive it is. It's possible Chop Robinson was their best player available. We'll never know.

I had this thought yesterday, way before the draft: Would it be better to draft the 5-6th best offensive linemen or the 2-3rd best pass-rusher? I feel like that was an important question. Miami went with one of the best pass-rushers in the draft, which was also a massive position of need. Don't forget that the Dolphins had to trot out the pass-rushing version of the Expendables to play in a playoff game.

We have no idea when Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips will be coming back. I know we get all giddy seeing them leg press houses, but they shouldn't play pro football until they are 110% ready to go. Personally, I don't think either will be ready for week one.

I understand folks are going to be emotional about this pick of Chop Robinson. As a PSU alumnus, I was happy to see we were getting him, but then I was instantly hit with the reality that he doesn't help the offensive line, which I felt needed to be upgraded for years to come. A real double-edged sword, I guess.

Just because I wanted an offensive lineman and feel Grier screwed that up big-time doesn't mean that Chop Robinson will be a bust. But I do believe these realities are now in place due to the Miami Dolphins drafting Chop Robinson.

It appears the Miami Dolphins believe that they can turn anyone into a solid offensive linemen.

Butch Barry came in and did wonderful things last year with an offensive line that not many figured to be all that good. Even with injuries to Isaiah Wynn, Connor Williams, and Terron Armstead, Barry made the Dolphins o-line into a formidable one.

He even did his version of turning water into wine by making Austin Jackson into a more than capable right tackle to the point that he got him a decent second contract with the Dolphins.

That whole thing where Chris Grier smugly said that we are all more worried about the offensive line than he is, he really believes that. I don't know why he does but he does.

Even though the offensive line was better last year, they did lose Connor Williams and Robert Hunt. And Terron Armstead, who misses about 5 games a year, is playing in what he thought to be his last season. Oh, and there is also nobody playing right guard right now. That's sort of a problem, one that I hope gets rectified today. So yeah, I am worried about the offensive line.

But, it appears that the Miami Dolphins feel they can plug just about anyone into their offensive line system and it will yield positive results. I'm not sure how true that is after watching Liam Eichenberg and others get blown away often, but here we are.

Chop Robinson going to the Miami Dolphins may mean that, in fact, Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb won't be ready for a while.

Here's a little news flash: tearing your ACL and rupturing your Achilles tendon takes a long time to heal. Even when you do get cleared, the prevailing wisdom is that you won't feel anywhere near yourself for at least another year. So, with that logic, Chubb and Philips will be right as rain in 2025.

I know we've seen videos of Phillips looking like his adonis self in the gym and from everything that's out there, Bradley Chubb is rehabbing well. But, to expect those guys to be ready to go in week one, to me, is not the smart way to go about things.

Chubb and Phillips need to be ultra-ready before stepping onto a football field before they smash into other men with all their might.

With the addition of Chop Robinson, the Dolphins have something to work with when comes to their pass-rush game. Shaq Barrett and Chop, you would think would be the starting outside linebackers in some form of a 3-4 or 3-3-5 defense that we expect Anthony Weaver to run. I would imagine some other guys will be in the mix as well.

The point is with Chop Robinson, Phillips and Chubb don't need to feel as pressured to hurry back.

You'll never convince me that the Miami Dolphins don't see a little Micah Parsons in Chop Robinson.

It's a copycat league, not sure you're aware of that, and you'll never convince me that when the scouts of the Dolphins watched Chop Robinson tape with him wearing that PSU uniform they didn't see a little Micah Parsons in his game.

Chop Robinson is about 10 LBs more than Micah, but he is right with him in terms of twitch athleticism. You'd swear he knows the exact cadence of the opposing offense because of the way Robinson fires off the ball. Maybe he does.

If you look at the tape of Parsons and Robinson you'll notice that both guys play all over the defensive line including being lined up over the nose. That's something that Parsons has transfered to the NFL. We've seen him plenty of times, wreak havoc by knifing right past the center into the backfield. Chop did a bit of that as well and you know the Dolphins say that and we're like " I want that."

Here are some videos of stats that paint a great picture of Chop Robinson;

This isn't to say that Chop Robinson will be Micah Parsons. That's a big ask because Micah is one of the best athletes in the entire NFL. I'm just saying the potential is there for it. Yes, I know drafting for potential isn't exactly what you want to do. Potential gets guys fired unless you're Chris Grier. But the ceiling on Chop is undoubtedly a high one, and that makes things fun.

Chop Robinson is an edge-rusher that is more than sack numbers but it be nice if he would get more in the NFL.

One of the instant knocks on Chop Robinson last night was that he only had 11 sacks during his time at PSU. That's a number you would think should be much higher if he's such a dynamic athlete who has the athleticism to demolish offensive lines. It's certainly a number that makes you think that the Dolphins should have gone elsewhere. I get that.

Do you want to know who only had 6.5 sacks in their college career? Micah Parsons. Sounds crazy, right? But it's true.

Here's the thing about sacks, they're nice and I want as many as possible but they're a little bit overrated. Just a little bit.

Look at this;

I'm not a big chart guy but knowledge is power. This shows that Chop Robinson beats his man like a drum pretty often. He doesn't always get home and bring the QB to the turf but he causes problems for offenses and ends their plays. The word you're going to hear associated with Chop the most might be disruption. You should buy stock in the word disruption if you can.

Here's how I look at it: in basketball, blocks are awesome, and it's a great stat. A stat you don't hear get talked about is the number of times a defender makes the offense put up a low-percentage shot. There actually is probably a name for that, I just don't know it. Like when a guard goes to the rim and sees Victor Wembanyana and they pull it out to shoot a jumper or do one of those high arching floaters that don't have much of a chance, that's what Chop Robinson does.

Robinson doesn't always get the sack but he makes the QB throw it away or force it into a tight spot. To me, that's very valuable. Would I like that play to be a five-yard loss in the form of a sack? Sure I would. But I'll take an incompletion as well. The sacks will start happening in the NFL. Or, they won't. We really don't know how this will play out.

Chop Robinson will probably be the ultimate boom-or-bust guy for the Miami Dolphins.

I'm sure you'll do your own digging on Chop Robinson and watch all the highlights. You may have broken some game tape of him. I watched him at PSU for three seasons, and I saw a guy get better and better.

I also saw a guy rely a lot on his God-given talent. He was able to be faster than everyone else. Obviously, the NFL is a different beast. This means the "raw" label that he has is accurate and it's something he needs to improve meaning he needs to polish his technique.

Here's a quote from Chop(by the way it's as cool a nickname as there is) about something technical about his game that he knows he needs to improve;

I love the self-awareness and how he was comfortable speaking about something particular about his game that needs to get better.

I expect him to be a day one starter. Will he be on the field for all three downs or only passing situations? I hope it's all three downs, but I suppose we don't know anything yet.

I have a hard time thinking that Chop Robinson will only be an alright player. To me, he'll be really good or casted out like Charles Harris with no inbetween.

Hopefully, the Miami Dolphins go offensive line with the #55 pick in the draft. They have to right? There are guys that are left that I would be smitten with.

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