Dolphins First-Round Pick Chop Robinson Deep Dive

What film study reveals about Miami Dolphins No. 1 pick Chop Robinson, where he shines, where he needs work and what his potential role might be as a rookie

Chop Robinson / Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

The 2024 NFL draft is over, and the Miami Dolphins are hoping their seven-player class can help them take that next step and get over the hump in the playoffs.

Miami’s draft featured a first-round pick for the first time since 2021, a second-round pick and five picks on Day 3, including a trade to get them back into the fourth round.

Here's a series of film study breakdowns of those seven draft picks, starting with Chop Robinson, to give fans a look at what these rookies can bring to the Dolphins’ roster.

The Dolphins took Robinson, No. 21 overall, out of Penn State, making him the fourth edge defender off the board.

Robinson began his career at the University of Maryland, playing in all 13 games as a true freshman before transferring to Penn State. He appeared in 22 games across two seasons for the Nittany Lions, totaling 9.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss.

Will Robinson contribute right away for the Dolphins? Let’s dive in and see what the film tells us.

Re-watching Chop Robinson film this morning and lmao look at his get-off. pic.twitter.com/DYlPdjh5Tq

— Dante Collinelli (@DanteCollinelli) April 26, 2024

Robinson’s Burst, Athleticism

Robinson’s explosiveness and athletic profile put him on the Dolphins’ radar in the first round. There’s a fair argument Robinson was the class’ most athletic pass rusher.

Athleticism matters more at certain positions, and edge is one of them. Robinson was an elite tester in pretty much every category. His 4.48 40-yard dash and 1.54 10-yard split finished in the 98th percentile.

His broad jump of 125 inches was 95th percentile, and his 20-yard short shuttle of 4.25 seconds was 84th percentile. Robinson is explosive in every single area of his game, and it shows up on tape.

The clip above against Michigan is one of the best reps on Robinson’s film. He’s out of his stance and upfield so quickly that Michigan’s offensive tackle doesn’t even have a chance to engage him.

Another important thing to note about this play is the corner Robinson turns to the quarterback. His excellent hip and ankle flexibility allows him to bend the edge and take the shortest path to the quarterback.

That’s a rare trait for any pass rusher and one of the more valuable. One area Robinson will have to improve on is getting stronger. He was off the line so quickly in the above rep that the tackle couldn’t even touch him.

When that doesn’t happen, Robinson has shown below-average strength in his core and ankles running the outside arc. Basically, he goes to attack the tackle’s outside shoulder but ends up on the ground if they make significant contact.

Robinson's profile shows the natural ability to sustain the arc and finish to the quarterback, but he didn’t show that ability consistently while at Penn State.

It’s up to the Dolphins to harness that ability and develop it.

Robinson’s Pass Rush Plan

Speaking of development, one of the most significant areas of improvement for Robinson has to be his pass-rush plan. In college, Robinson was all speed all the time. He got away with it because college offensive tackles aren’t always very athletic.

He’ll still get away with it some at the NFL level, but he’ll have to develop some kind of counter-move off his speed rush. That starts with better hand usage.

Robinson often attempts to use a rip move when attacking the tackle’s outside shoulder, but he lacks consistency with his hand placement. Far too often, his hands don’t make an impact, and he ends up on the ground or just locked out.

There are some reps where he shows a good speed-to-power rush, allowing him to collapse opposing linemen into the pocket. However, he doesn’t use his hands to cleanly disengage in those scenarios.

A lack of pass-rush technique is part of the problem, but there are also physical limitations. Robinson has really short arms. His 32 1/2-inch arm length is in the 12th percentile among edge rushers since 1999.

This prevents Robinson from getting into tackles’ chests and controlling reps. It makes it harder for him to use his hands to disengage because he’s simply getting outreached. This issue popped up in college and will likely pop up even more so in the NFL.

The fix is to become a technician with his hand usage. If Robinson can improve the accuracy of his punches, it would allow him to have a more robust pass-rush repertoire and mitigate his lackluster length.

It’s a big “if,” though, because Robinson is basically starting from zero in this area based on his college tape.

Robinson’s Run Defense

Robinson’s best reps against the run are plays where his quickness is too much for opposing linemen to handle. He’s more than capable of shooting gaps, forcing running backs off their initial path.

Robinson is so athletic and explosive off the snap that he can cause havoc against the run despite not making the play himself.

That said, Robinson is not remotely ready to make an immediate impact against the run at the NFL level for a few reasons. The first is his lack of overall strength. As mentioned above, it pops up occasionally when rushing the passer, but it’s a more significant concern against the run.

Robinson gets tossed around by bigger linemen way too often. He just doesn’t have the strength or the size to handle powerful blockers. His short arms come back to bite him quite a bit in the running game.

He can stack blocks at an average level, but he can’t disengage quickly enough to make impact plays. Robinson weighed 254 pounds at the NFL combine, just the 27th percentile.

The Dolphins can make him stronger, but it will take time. In fact, there’s a good chance Robinson’s lack of run defense will keep him off the field for a good portion of the 2024 season.

Even if Robinson becomes stronger, Miami can do nothing about his arm length. Because of that, it’s hard to imagine Robinson becoming more than just an average run defender.

That might be good enough, depending on how good of a pass rusher he becomes. Still, it makes his margin of error for success that much smaller.

Robinson’s Versatility

Reading the tea leaves from Miami’s offseason signings, it seems the team will deploy some exotic blitz concepts under new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.

Players like Shaq Barrett and Jordyn Brooks can play from a “mugged” (standing up over the guard or center) look on the defensive line.

The same applies to Robinson, who Penn State used in similar looks throughout the 2023 season. Robinson’s quickness and athletic profile make him difficult for any interior lineman to handle.

Pairing him with another uber-athletic player (like Brooks) on a blitz would likely be a successful look for the Dolphins this season. It would give Weaver options to generate pressure while the team’s top pass rushers (Bradley Chubb and Jaelen Phillips) recover from injury.

Robinson’s athletic ability also makes him a weapon in simulated pressures, something the Ravens used a lot last season with Weaver as their defensive line coach.

Robinson is athletic enough to drop into coverage, meaning teams could reasonably doubt whether he’ll actually rush the passer in certain blitz looks.

Now, Robinson shouldn’t be trusted in coverage. Still, the whole point of simulated pressures is to drop someone who usually rushes the passer into coverage and rush someone who usually covers, confusing the offensive line’s protection rules.

At least with Robinson, you know he’s got the natural athletic ability to cover some ground on the second level.

This could be where Robinson gets on the field most often in 2024.

The Bottom Line With Chop Robinson

Robinson is the definition of a boom-or-bust pick. There’s so much to love about his athletic profile, advanced pass-rush metrics and flashes on tape.

It’s not hard to imagine him becoming a player who gets the Dolphins more than 10 sacks a season and terrorizes quarterbacks in the AFC East for a long time.

That said, Robinson has a long way to go before becoming that player. Although he has all the natural traits, there’s little refinement to his game. His hand usage and pass-rush plan need to be built from the ground up, and he’s not ready to defend the run consistently against NFL-caliber linemen.

Because of that, Robinson profiles as a situational pass rusher in 2024. He shouldn’t be someone the Dolphins rely on to play many snaps, which poses its own set of problems.

Miami’s edge depth isn’t good because of Chubb and Phillips’ injuries. Even if those players were healthy, the team needed additional pass-rush help.

Robinson can help some, but he needs to be paired with a more reliable veteran until Phillips and Chubb return. If everything goes according to plan, Miami will have a pass-rush unit of Phillips, Chubb, Robinson, and Barrett by season’s end.

That’s a good group with a lot of upside, but the road to get there might be rocky.

Instead of focusing on Robinson’s impact this season, it’s probably better to look ahead to 2025. Barrett is on a one-year deal, Phillips is due for an extension, and Chubb has an out in his contract in 2025.

Edge is a long-term need for Miami as much as it is a short-term one — Robinson fills the long-term need much better than the short-term.

Robinson’s profile has a lot of risk, but the reward could be one of the NFL’s most impactful pass rushers. The Dolphins are betting on their development staff, for better or worse.