Allen Robinson was one of the Rams’ two prized free-agent signings in 2022, along with star linebacker Bobby Wagner. He was supposed to be their No. 2 receiver alongside Cooper Kupp, hopefully taking pressure off the reigning Offensive Player of the Year and drawing coverage his way.
Nothing about the signing went according to plan, unfortunately.
Matthew Stafford didn’t throw during OTAs due to an elbow issue and when training camp rolled around, he was limited to mostly individual drills. Early in the season, the offensive line suffered injury after injury, to the point where they started three different centers and three different right guards by Week 6. Then the injury bug bit Robinson himself missing the final seven games of the season with a foot ailment that he says popped up in Week 6 or 7.
Robinson was asked on the “Rich Eisen Show” this week what went wrong in L.A. and he attributed it to the never-ending injuries the team suffered.
“I was tough, man. I think one of the big things was we never really had a full, healthy group, even going back to OTA time and training camp and things like that,” he said. “I thought personally, I had one of my best training camps of my career. But unfortunately through a lot of that, Matthew wasn’t 100% healthy. He was still coming off an injury he had from their Super Bowl year. So we kind of had that. Then as the season progressed from Week 1 moving forward, O-line-wise, we were kind of banged up. Once we got to Week 6 or 7, I was kind of nursing a foot. Cooper was banged up. So for our team, we never actually could hit a groove and hit a stride that we wanted to hit. Then from a schematic standpoint, I just feel like everything was kind of thrown off a little bit by so many people in and out of the lineup.”
The Rams traded Robinson to the Steelers this offseason, simply to get out of his $46.5 million contract. The two teams swapped seventh-round picks, while the Rams took on $21.45 million in dead cap this year. They also freed up $18.55 million in cap space next year, which was their primary goal.
The idea of Robinson in Sean McVay’s offense was a good one but between injuries and a lack of offseason work together, things simply didn’t work out the way either side planned.
