Cincinnati Bengals Rookie Takes on New Role with Confidence Gained at Tulane
Former Tulane cornerback Lance Robinson has always had strong ball skills and versatility, and those came in handy in his debut as a Cincinnati Bengals rookie.
Robinson started at Tulane for two seasons as their field cornerback, but came to the school from Kansas State, where he played a slightly different role. Quite frankly, he has all the requisite traits for a prototypal nickel corner.
A position in which parameters such as height are less important than quick twitch, physicality, and film study. Areas where Robinson has always shined. It’s also a more vocal role, but he assumed a key leadership role on not just the secondary, but on Tulane’s defense last season. That prepared him for the mentality switch to the NFL.
Lance Robinson sat down with Tulane on Sports Illustrated to discuss his journey to Cincinnati and how his leadership and communication skills from Tulane helped him feel confident taking on a more vocal role in the secondary.
Robinson made his official debut as a rookie in the Bengals first preseason game, a 17-14 loss to Tampa Bay. He incurred a pass interference penalty, but in 40 snaps, he had 3 solo tackles and an assist—physical ones at that against tight ends.
He’s never been afraid of the moment and was nothing short of a playmaker for the Green Wave last season with key timed interceptions and pass breakups. Robinson was easily the most valuable in between reps. A memory that sticks with me is his assembled huddle mid-game in last season’s opener. The secondary was bleeding slightly, so he stepped in to calm the waters. I recall noting how many coaches stopped and allowed the player to lead.
Robinson has always been a vocal leader, a skill incredibly important at nickel, where he considers it to be his natural position. Prior to transferring to Tulane, he started four games for Kansas State in that role in his freshman season. He looks at it as an opportunity to expand his game at the NFL level.
“I can blitz off the edge; I can tackle well in space,” Robinson told me. "I'll now be closer to the ball. I’m also a communicator. At cornerback, your job is not really to talk that much. Just stay on your island and don’t give up touchdowns.”
"But when you're in that box playing nickel, you have to communicate a little bit more, and that's something I don't shy away from. It’s been a learning experience because you have to flip your mindset from corner to nickel. I'll play a little corner here and there, but I'm a full-time nickel, and I like it. I like it a lot.”
Robinson has always carried himself with a quiet confidence but had great instincts for when it was time to speak up. Stepping into a more vocal role as an NFL rookie is easier said than done. Robinson knows the difference between talking for the sake of it and knowing when it’s needed for his team.
“It’s what the team expects of me,” he said. "I'm just getting comfortable understanding that this is what I have to do. This is what the people around me expect of me, and I'm just holding everybody to that same standard. At the end of the day, in between the white lines, we all have a common goal: to win the game. You should never jump ship too early.”
He wisely recognized the need to calm down first-game jitters, recalling the season opener where he assembled the huddle. His message to Tulane’s defense was simple: let’s go out there and ball, because we are prepared.
“It all goes back to the film study, knowing what’s coming and what to do, and not panicking,” he explained. “We all know adversity will come. Someone's going to make a good catch; someone's going to make a long run; and someone's going to miss a tackle. Someone's going to miss a gap. In the NFL, what I'm starting to figure out is you have to be a problem solver. You can't be frantic, emotional, and lash out. You have to be a problem solver because things will go wrong.”
“The quarterbacks make the difference in the NFL. If you have an elite quarterback, it just makes the offense look 10 times better. As far as me being a leader, your play has to match what you're saying and what you're trying to do in your mission. You have to know what's going on before you can try to tell the next guy what to do. If you don't know your job, you can't tell the next guy what to do.”
Anyone who watched Robinson take the field in a Tulane uniform knows how prepared he always was, how well positioned he was to make plays on the ball, and how little his height mattered with his physicality and fastidious film study.
MADDY HUDAK