Adrien Robinson says it's not too late to live up to draft day promise
Giants tight end Adrien Robinson practices during team training camp. (Aug. 2, 2013) Credit: James Escher
Adrien Robinson believes there is still time to live up to the description Jerry Reese saddled him with on the day he was drafted just over two years ago.
“At the time, I didn’t think much of it, people kept talking about it,” Robinson said last week when talk once again resurfaced of his being introduced to Giants fans as “the JPP of tight ends.” This was at a time when Jason Pierre-Paul was coming off his second NFL season and seemed about to blossom from an unknown raw college player to a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate. The expectation was that Robinson would be able to follow the same path from obscurity to stardom.
Robinson has yet to catch a pass in the NFL, though, and has played in just a handful of games in two seasons. Now that he is entering Season Three – and with no established starter in front of him on the depth chart – Robinson thinks he’s about to fulfill that promise.
“Obviously I do feel like I can do that coming into this year, so we’ll see,” he said. “Just my athletic ability and fitting in with this offense. It’ll be good, a good opportunity … I stay extra every day, stay and get extra film. I’m on the elliptical every day trying to get my weight down more so I’m just doing a lot of things differently. I feel like I’m more mature, I’m more of a professional now, so I have that approach.”
Robinson is down to about 270 pounds, he said, and wants to reach 265. Last year he was at 285. Losing the weight will allow him to play a more versatile position in the offense, not just an in-line blocking tight end who can sometimes catch passes.
“It’s completely different,” Robinson said of the new Giants offense. “We move around a lot more in the backfield, different routes. I feel like it’s more fitted for the things that I’m good at.”
The Giants did not draft a tight end, although many thought they had Eric Ebron in their sights in the first round. Reese and Tom Coughlin both said after the draft that they are convinced the young players they have at the position will step up. It was clear they were talking about Robinson.
“It’s just a huge opportunity,” he said. “They laid the opportunity right in front of me. I just have to go take it and make the most of it … (Not drafting a tight end) proves that they believe in me, me and the guys we have here.”
