While waiting on Jadeveon Clowney, Seahawks draft another pass rusher: Alton Robinson
The Seahawks continue to restock their pass rush—which absolutely had to be restocked.
One day after selecting Darrell Taylor from Tennessee to zoom off the edge, Seattle took fast-rushing defensive end Alton Robinson from Syracuse in the fifth round of the NFL draft Saturday.
Robinson, like Taylor, has size that fits coach Pete Carroll’s liking for a weakside, “Leo” defensive end. Robinson is 6 feet 3, 264 pounds. His quickness rushing the quarterback off the edge is why he is in the NFL.
Robinson was going to attend and play for his home-state Texas A&M. But he got charged with robbery after an alleged altercation with a girlfriend. A&M dropped him. The charged eventually was dismissed.
He instead went to junior college, Northeast Oklahoma A&M, then Syracuse gave him a second chance at the top level of college football. That’s where he became a fast, NFL-ready edge rusher. He had 19 1/2 sacks in his final two of three seasons at Syracuse. He was an every-down end in a 4-3 scheme for the Orange, and has been described as just too good for most of Syracuse’s competition.
He could have been in the mighty Southeastern Conference, which no doubt would have raised his NFL draft profile and perhaps his selection. He was impressively forthright answering for that robbery charge that kept him out of Texas A&M while on a Zoom online call Saturday from his home in San Antonio.
He’s had to answer for it from NFL teams for months.
“Basically, I was immature at the time,” Robinson said. “It was very embarrassing...
“I definitely learned from it.”
Life lessons and second chances: the Seahawks and coach Pete Carroll love to stockpile those.
Robinson knows more than most rookies from Texas then an East Coast college do about the Seahawks. After Syracuse’s season ended last fall he immediately began training in Bellevue at Tracy Ford’s facility. A friend knows Ford. While working out in Bellevue, Robinson met former Seahawks Super Bowl-winning defensive end Cliff Avril, All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner and Pro Bowl veteran K.J. Wright.
Robinson also went to the same high school in San Antonio as Tre Flowers, the Seahawks’ starting cornerback the last two seasons.
Asked his impressions of Seattle from seeing it up front for months, until the coronavirus pandemic shut down the gym and most of society last month, Robinson grinned.
“The 12s roll deep,” he said.
Befriending Avril, Wagner, Wright—and saluting the passion of Seahawks fans?
Robinson became an instant fan favorite, 30 minutes into his Seattle career.
The Seahawks have been trying for more than a month to re-sign pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney. The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end remains a free agent weighing his options elsewhere in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that has shut down his travel to other teams and physical examinations.
This week, Seahawks general manager John Schneider said “the door’s not closed” to Clowney returning to play for Seattle in 2020.
But, the GM also said, the team can no longer wait to improve what was the second-worst pass-rushing unit in the league last season. Only Miami had fewer than Seattle’s 28 sacks in 16 games.
This story was originally published April 25, 2020 at 12:09 PM.
