Rams LT Greg Robinson recovering from toe surgery
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/16481/greg-robinson-recovering-from-toe-surgery
EARTH CITY, Mo. — While speaking to reporters Friday at the scouting combine in Indianapolis, St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher revealed that tackle Greg Robinson underwent offseason toe surgery.
Robinson, whom Fisher has already declared is his starting left tackle moving forward, apparently dealt with the toe injury the final couple of weeks of the season but is already back on the road to recovery.
In fact, Fisher said Friday that Robinson has been at Rams Park pretty much every day since the end of the season rehabilitating.
“He had some offseason surgery, so he’s in the building every day,” Fisher said. “And he comes to the building every day not worrying about going on the practice field and making a mistake. He comes in the building every day learning how to be a pro.
“He’s had to take a deep breath, rehab and learn. I think you’ll see significant improvement.”
Robinson, of course, was the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s NFL draft. At the time, the Rams took him with the belief that he would be their left tackle long term but probably play inside in the early stages of his career.
As it turned out, Robinson took about a quarter of the season before he broke the starting lineup anywhere, making his first start in Week 6 against San Francisco on “Monday Night Football.” After Robinson made just three starts at left guard, starting left tackle Jake Long suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 8 against Kansas City.
Robinson moved outside to left tackle and finished the season there. As you’d expect from a rookie tackle in need of major polish, Robinson has his ups and downs. But he showed enough to expedite the process of becoming the left tackle.
“One of the reasons we took Greg was because we knew he’s got a future home at left tackle,” Snead said. “But at the point in time Jake was healthy, we were going to put him at guard because he was one of our best five, and we thought that would only help him evolve as he adjusted to our NFL game. But at this point in time, he’ll stay at left tackle and go from there.”
Meanwhile, Long is coming back from a second consecutive ACL surgery and could be in line for a potential pay cut or an outright release. The Rams will almost certainly look to reduce Long’s $10.5-million salary cap number. Whether he returns or not could also correlate to what happens with pending free agent right tackle Joe Barksdale.
Since Robinson is penciled in as the left tackle, Fisher has said that the Rams have talked about other options for Long should they bring him back.
“I don’t know what it looks like,” Fisher said. “If he comes back and he’s 100 percent, then he’ll have a chance to be a part and contribute to what we’re doing. There are possibilities that we’ve discussed.”
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