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Another Position Change: Why Are Dallas Cowboys Jacking Around With Reggie Robinson?

Before recent fourth-round pick Reggie Robinson can "succeed,'' he must be put in a "position.'' Any position. And in order to develop, must be left there longer than a month, a week or a day.

Mike Fisher

Another Position Change: Why Are Dallas Cowboys Jacking Around With Reggie Robinson?
Another Position Change: Why Are Dallas Cowboys Jacking Around With Reggie Robinson? /

FRISCO - On the one hand, it can be a sign of being valued, being loved. Hey, maybe the Dallas Cowboys coaching cares so much about Reggie Robinson that they are putting in overtime trying to find exactly the right fit for the second-year DB.

On the other hand ... maybe they don't know what they're doing.

Sources tell me that this week Cowboys coaches - this time all three of Robinson's defensive bosses, coordinator Dan Quinn, top aide Joe Whitt and secondary coach Al Harris - met with Robinson to offer praise ... and a third position switch of this offseason.

Let's do this chronologically (if not exactly "logically'') ...

Robinson, a "pet cat'' of Cowboys personnel boss Will McClay, was selected in the 2020 NFL Draft as a cornerback, the position he manned as a playmaker at Tulsa. His 6-1 length and 4.4 speed made him a nice fit for what McClay (and most defensive coaches) look for in a corner.

But midway through the 2021 season, with Robinson having not gotten his uniform dirty yet, coach Mike McCarthy and then-coordinator Mike Nolan oversaw a switch. Robinson was told he was now a safety.

That - despite Dallas' generally awful performance last year at the safety spot - still didn't result in any real playing time.

Then, in the offseason, Nolan was fired and Quinn was hired. And on March 4, Robinson received new marching orders from Harris, who told the 23-year-old he'd be moving back to cornerback.

So that was that. Until, March 9, when Quinn phoned Robinson to inform him to tap the brakes on the switch, and that the coach had big plans for Robinson as a safety.

Which was fine ... until this week, when another meeting resulted in another move. Robinson, who is playing on a four-year contract worth $4.02 million with a signing bonus of $729,000, was informed by Quinn, Whitt and Harris that he's moving back to cornerback.

One coach tells me that Dallas' "praise'' for Robinson is fueled by his positive attitude and his willingness to accept all of this shuffling. And the fact that all three coaches are being hands-on here means Robinson hasn't been relegated to being an afterthought.

That's lovely ... but eventually, the best praise for Robinson and his bosses would come as a result of allowing him actual on-field performance.

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Some of this flip-flopping can be a result of other personnel moves; the NFL Draft, where Dallas selected a trio of DBs, likely impacts what the Cowboys want to do with Robinson. But it is the job of a coaching staff to "put players in position to succeed.''

And before recent fourth-round pick Reggie Robinson can "succeed,'' he must be put in a "position.'' Any position. And in order to develop, must be left there longer than a month, a week or a day.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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