Robinson Excelling in OL Performance Institute

InvaderRam wrote:

bentley probably doesn’t have anything different to offer than boudreau. but hopefully robinson’s commitment has changed. that could be the difference that leads to a breakthrough year?

Bentley has more time he can spend with GR.

Boudreau’s hours of coaching contact are limited by the new CBA.

This is a good place to break out the old quotation where PB talks about coaching GR. It;s not just the CBA limiting hours a coach can coach…on top of that, not only did GR came out of school raw, green, completely unrefined, he also came out believing in his athleticism so much he did not put in the time beyond practice etc. He improved during the year last year and that was after openly confessing that he had to change his attitude.

So I see this off-season effort as GR making up for lost time.

I think the biggest complaint NFL line coaches at the summit had was how they can’t get even talk to their players, especially those that just finished their rookie season, until April under the CBA. They’re not even asking to hit, they just want to teach their guys and watch film. Take the case of Greg Robinson, the No. 2 pick in the 2014 draft by the Rams, who struggled as a rookie and may need more time to be able to play left tackle. “They had four run plays (at Auburn) and one protection: slide left, slide right. He didn’t have a snap count,” says Rams line coach Paul Boudreau, who has coached in the NFL since 1987 with eight different teams. “Now, I coached Willie Roaf when Willie was a rookie. Willie’s in the Hall of Fame. And I can tell you from a coach who coached Willie and now coaches Greg Robinson: Greg Robinson as a rookie has more talent and is a better player than Willie. Willie had a great coach at Louisiana Tech and Willie was ahead of the curve because of the techniques he was taught, just like how we talk about preferring the Wisconsin, Iowa, Stanford and Notre Dame guys. They have one up on the guys from the spread. I’m not going to tell a spread coach he can’t do it anymore. What I’m saying to the NFL is, ‘Give me a chance to change this spread guy to an NFL guy. Don’t restrict me.’ Back in the day, we could take the Wing-T guys and convert them because we had the time. Just give me a chance to coach my guys and don’t tell me I can only have them for four hours.”

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/05/24/memorial-day-nfl-veterans-tom-brady-deflategate/5

Rams’ Robinson ‘built to dominate’ at LeCharles Bentley’s lineman camp

Jared Dubin

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25539438/rams-lt-robinson-built-to-dominate-at-lecharles-bentleys-lineman-camp

Greg Robinson was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. He started 12 games for the Rams in 2014, mostly at guard, then kicked outside to tackle in 2015. He did not exactly live up to the “second pick of the draft” billing during that time, with Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value ranking his performance tied for 86th among offensive linemen in 2014 and 2015. He’s already allowed double-digit sacks in his career and he finished 2015 tied for the third-most penalties in the NFL behind only Brandon Browner and Jerry Hughes.

What is Robinson doing to get his game up to speed? Going to LeCharles Bentley’s famous offensive lineman camp.

Lifting, kick-step drills, pushing cars … this is the stuff good offensive linemen are apparently made of. Bentley has helped a whole bunch of linemen like Alex Boone, Larry Warford, Chance Warmack, Geoff Schwartz, Bobby Massie, Willie Colon and more get their game up to speed. Rams fans surely hope he can help Robinson, too.

wv wrote:

Well, all that sounds good, and I am expecting some improvement from
GR, if for no other reason than its year 3, but I’m also wary
of offseason’improvement’ reports. Seen to many of em, over the years.

w
v

In principle you’re right to reserve judgment, but I am less skeptical. For example, Chris Long participated in such an off-season program. It led to his best year.

And also notice this:

Bentley has helped a whole bunch of linemen like Alex Boone, Larry Warford, Chance Warmack, Geoff Schwartz, Bobby Massie, Willie Colon and more get their game up to speed

That’s an interesting list. It includes guys like Schwartz, who went from being a low-budget, “cast-off” style FA one year to one of the top linemen in high-market free agency the next.

For me the main thing is that GR has basically admitted he had been holding himself back. He had tried too long to get by on just physical talent (he said that himself). So what going to Bentley’s thing tells me is that GR is now serious about working on his craft. It’s not so much that I think Bentley will “fix” him, though Bentley actually really has had good results with others. It’s that GR is making the effort. Presumably that carries over to OTAs and camp, and then the season.

Eternal Ramnation wrote:

His mistakes imo were caused by overthinking, confusion.

Plus not “studying.” Story is, he took awhile to grasp how important film study is. So I would add uncertainty to “confusion.”

InvaderRam wrote:

if he can be a solid starter i’ll be happy. don’t necessarily need the next orlando.

I am optimistic that he will become a good starter, but I also still believe he has a ceiling much higher than that.

You brought up Pace. Many people mention that Pace started faster than GR. But the world then was different. No one raised this issue here, but I will just rant on about it a bit anyway.

Pace of course played in an era when college linemen learned more advanced systems, and then he came to an NFL world where they were allowed to devote untold hours to coaching, including in the off-season. Neither of which is true for Robinson, He came out far more raw than Pace and probably has been allowed something in the order of 25% of the coaching time that Pace got (and of course not only could coaches spend more time with players then, but that was Vermeil—who demanded more face time from players than any other NFL coach on top of it.)

The difference between then and now includes more than Pace v. Robinson. In 97, Pace’s draft year, 4 OTs went in the first round, and they all did well as rookies. (Pace, Jones, Glenn, Verba.) That’s how much more advanced college schemes were then, v. the rudimentary spread systems they have now.

In contrast, if you look at OTs drafted in round 1 from 2013 on, it is rare for any of them to do well as rookies and most still aren’t significantly better their second year. That’s v. 4 performing well as rookies in 97. These days, it’s unthinkable that 4 1st round left OTs taken in the same draft could all play well as rookies…and Robinson, if anything, was less prepared than most.

BUT like I said, I am optimistic about GR, and I think he will be the Rams LOT, and a good one…possibly even (eventually) a great one…and will hold down that position for another 10 years.

In which case, if we’re right, then, yay.

.

InvaderRam wrote:

. but this is also his first full offseason without having some type of injury to rehab from. so here’s hoping.

Yeah he hasn’t even gotten to the real coaching yet.

I mean, yeah, he just ought to be better…I don’t want to guarantee it, but, it seems pretty likely.

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