Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

CB Dunta Robinson
(5'-10",186 Lbs,4.34 40 yd dash) South Carolina

Notes: Three-year,two-way starter in high school who returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns.Appeared in 9 games as a backup safety and on special teams as a true freshman in 2000,making five tackles.Saw action in eleven games in '01 and recorded 10 tackles.Came on in his first year as a starter in '02 after moving to cornerback in the spring.Started all 12 games and finished with 49 tackles,a team leading ten pass breakups and four interceptions.Started all 12 games in '03 finishing with 50-12-1,returning the interception 29 yds for a touchdown.Also had four tackles for a loss and returned three punts for 44 yds (14.7 yd average).Named team MVP in '03.

Positives: Excellent straight line and closing speed.Very quick feet and loose hips.Shows a burst.Explosive out of his backpedal.Supertough and plays much bigger than his size.Good football intelligence.Exceptional change of direction and foot quickness.Good athletic ability.Has a 36 inch vertical jump.Fluid and can turn his hips and get out of his breaks quickly.Very sudden with excellent range and good ball skills.Reliable open field tackler.Team captain who will play hurt.Very confident and has a swagger to him.Tough,tenacious and aggressive.Learns quickly and took little time to adapt to playing cornerback.Hard worker.

Negatives: Lacks great size and strength.Can improve at reading routes.Has a tendency to be overaggressive and bite on pump fakes.Lacks great awareness with his back to the ball.Can do a better job getting rid of and slipping blockers.

Summary: Tough,physical corner and definite first round talent.Has the speed and athletic ability to contribute immediately in the NFL.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Isn\'t this pretty much what all the scouts say about all CB prospects?
DR will be an all-pro CB for many years. Maybe not his 1st few, but he will be there eventually.
We can afford to wait till 2005 for him to fully develop. He\'ll get major PT his 1st year.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

funny thing is when LSU played SC, i never heard Robinson\'s name. As a devout Tiger fan (much more than the Saints), I find it peculiar that he wasn\'t heard of all game. I just don\'t like the idea of drafting someone based on the fact that they had a great weekend at the combines or personal workout session. granted, he\'s talented, and really fast, but that and 50 cents can get you a cup of coffee. that\'s saying a lot considering the Saints secondary is so porous that I could probably put 250 yds through the air on them, and I haven\'t thrown a football since high school.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

That\'s a good thing when you\'re talking about CBs.

When you don\'t hear they\'re name very much, it means that the QB is throwing away from their side. If I remember correctly, the LSU recievers were shut down that game (I think Henderson and Clayton combined for 60 yards?). Dunta definitely helped himself with his impressive workout numbers, but he does have college production to back those numbers up.

[Edited on 17/4/2004 by Cadillac]

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

You never want to hear your corner\'s name being called unless he makes an int. If you dont hear his name, he is doing his job.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

i guess what i was really trying to imply is that all this hype is over the guy doing good for a weekend. granted he was OK at SC, but that\'s all... OK. I don\'t get why all the scouts rave about the guy, being all the times i\'ve ever watched SEC football (that\'s a lot of times), i never heard about this guy being a \"blanket\" type of defender.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

most good CB\'s are known pretty well, but this guy wasn\'t the prospect he is now until now. i just don\'t like the fact that if the draft happened half way through the college football season, this guy is likely to have been no more than a 2nd rd. pick, but because he can run a 4.34 or so forty, everyone is falling all over themselves.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

If the draft took place halfway through the college season, Strait would be the top CB taken. I\'m not really sure what my point is with that, other than I guess the importance of the combine and pro days.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

I listened to the LSU/SC game on the radio and before the game, during the breakdown segment, I believe it was Mike D. who said SC had a legit first round corner who could give the LSU receivers some fits. That was the first i had ever heard of him but he didnt come from nowhere, the guy made a name for himself in the SEC.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

i don\'t recall that comment at all, but i did watch the game and the only person on south carolina\'s team that i can remember thinking was a \"prospect\" was there freshman qb

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

pinkins, or something to that effect

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Yeah, well I watched every Saints game and I heard our DB\'s names said quite a bit and it usually not a good thing. If you are a good db your name will not be said much.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

not necessarily true... i heard all sorts of things about gamble, strait, hall, and even poole and these are the \"good\" prospects. i didn\'t hear anything about how good robinson is until he went to the combines. don\'t get me wrong here, i think that he\'d be better than all of our corners (except maybe Thomas), but to go and draft a guy because he became superman for a weekend, rather than did great for a season, to me is asinine.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

There is no way to tell if any of these guys will be good NFL players or not. So, I don\'t really care how much you heard those guys name. To me rix, your comment was asinine.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

i wasn\'t directing that towards you sir spanks a lot... but i do get rather tired of teams, not just the Saints, selecting players based on a workout. tony mandarich, steve emtman, and others come to mind. these guys were \"can\'t miss\" players, according to scouts at the combines, and well, we all know what happened to them.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

I dont think any of know what happened to them. That is the problem. I couldnt tell you where they are today and why they never panned out. There is no such thing as a cant miss talent. Too many things are possible and no one is safe. Robinson was a good corner all year. He is not a \"workout warrior.\" He has performed on the field. Shawtae Spencer from Pitt is a workout warrior. There is a difference.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Look, you name every bust there was since the draft started. Look at the guys whose name was called alot. Wuerful, Troy Davis, Lawrence Phillips, etc etc...Their name was called very often and what did they do in the NFL? Like spanky said no one knows how these guys are going to pan out in the NFL until they play.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

I did not mean to attack you rxis, but it\'s aggravating to hear people talk about certain players being \"workout warriors.\" The draft has never been an exact science and it will never be one. That is one of the many things that draw me to the draft. Many things go into who makes it and who does not. Only time will tell if Robinson is legit, so until then I guess you can speculate all you want.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

all i\'m saying is that the red carpet should not be rolled out on bourbon st. for this kid that had one good weekend. for all we know, he could be the best corner to ever play, but you can\'t make that assessment over a combine outcome.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Numbskull...what i am trying to say is that he was a good corner ALL SEASON AT SC.
He wasnt unheard of until the combine.
He was projected to be a first round/second round corner during the season when he was playing...when he was making plays and playing football...that was when people became enamored with him. He made a name for himself on the field and he enhanced that during the workout.

Red Carpet is overrated.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

really... interesting, because i don\'t think he was. in fact, most \"mock\" drafts done by \"experts\" didn\'t even have him in the first round. strait was the hot commodity as far as corners go.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

would you not agree that GM\'s and coaches (front office types) make to much over combine results? i don\'t agree with this stance of selecting future players. any college player can go out in a pair of shorts and run real fast, jump real high, and lift a lot of weight, but that doesn\'t automatically transpire into being a good player. like i said earlier, this kid may be the next deion, but i wouldn\'t let his combine effort sway me to thinking that.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

any college player can go out in a pair of shorts and run real fast, jump real high, and lift a lot of weight

Not true, Chad Hess plays Lacrosse for Nicholls State University and he cant run fast, jump real high, or lift a lot of weight...but he is good at Lacrosse...and they play in shorts....and...well, i dont even know if he is good at lacrosse or not...i just know he plays.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

he\'s from nicholls... that\'s why

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

thats harsh.

Chris Thompson is from Nicholls and he is a 5th round prospect.
He is tall and good.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

He\'s also a kick-ass football player, but that\'s what he\'s about

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

That\'s what you are implying. I don\'t believe they do. They look at film (lots of film) and listen to their scouting department that hopefully saw those guys play. I remember Randy Mueller saying that the combine mostly was for medical examinations and interviews to get to know the players better. The times and numbers are mostly for show (i.e. media). The overwhelming majority of GMs takes this approach IMHO.
You can maybe create interest with a really fast 40 or 3-cone-drill time, but then it\'s back to the film room. If you can\'t back it up, good numbers won\'t help. Robinson is a legitimate first rounder. You might not agree with the players the Saints draft (and that\'s the same for fans of all teams), but give the coaches and GMs a little more respect in this area. They do not just look at numbers.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Weel said Clon, I couldn\'t have said it better myself. As far as Mr. Hess goes, I actually hear he has gotten faster but still can\'t jump high. Oh sure, he knows what people think about him. It\'s like Chad, he\'s like just this kickass lacrossee player. Ya know he also play Madden by the way, but thats like not all that he is ya know. I mean it really bothers me when people try to piegon hole him like that.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

whiat i was implying is that sometimes coaches and GM\'s can get a little swayed in decision making due to elevated times and lifts. we have a prime example, donte \"streetclothes\". this guy wasn\'t even the best WR on his college team, but when he outran his own shadow at the combine, he instantly rose to the top of the board. everyone, especially the Saints, conviently overlooked the fact that he has had constant injuries since high school (hamstrings). do i think they should have taken stallworth. no, lelie was healthy and just as fast and bigger. but now we\'re stuck with a guy who doesn\'t suit up every weekend, mostly because he\'s hurt or if he\'s not hurt, he\'s scared to get hurt again, and we\'re stuck with him because he ran a 4.2 forty.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Lelie isnt exaclty lighting it up either...also, you pointed out how healthy he was in college...and that is correct...but he has been all the time in Denver. You never really know what is gonna happen. Donte wasnt drafted solely because of his workout either. He was drafted to be a gamebreaker...and when he is on the field, no one can deny the fact that he is one. He makes plays when he\'s not cheering on the sideline.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

i was onl.y kidding about nicholls... i pretty much grew up in beauregard hall b/c my mom was a professor there in the late 80\'s

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

\'whens\' and \'ifs\'

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

hard to be a gamebreaker if you aren\'t in the actual game jimbone. bottom line is lelie hasn\'t missed one game since coming to the NFL... that alone separates him from stallworth. just like energy, i\'ll take kinetic (active) energy over potential (at rest) energy any day. if potential energy isn\'t converted to kinetic, it\'s useless. stallworth is potential energy, kinda useless if not converted, or made active. get it. don\'t get me wrong, i think he has major talent and all that, but on the sidelines it can\'t be used and at least we\'d have someone decent ON THE FIELD w/ Lelie or any other WR from the past 2 drafts.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

The year we drafted Stallworth I wasn\'t sure if I wanted him or Buchanon. Looking back we probably should of drafted Buchanon, but hind sight\'s 20/20. I do know though that like most Saints fans I was excited after we drafted Stallworth. If Stallworth ever gets the fire under his hindside lit he will be a gamebreaker, and all you bashers will be praising him. Robinson did make plays and was feared by opponents.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

if \'Streetclothes\' gets a fire under his hindside he\'ll be on the DL with a ruptured hamstring

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

spanky, i hope to god you are right about stallworth, but i have good sources that have pointed out that SEVERAL times he\'s been more than healthy enough to play, but refused to citing that he didn\'t want to hurt it more. team doctors have told me he was healthy and could have played, but as we have come to know, he didn\'t.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

I don\'t know, Buchanon looked like toast a ton last year. I remember when Oakland played Detroit, the lions fullback Cory Schlesinger completely beat him on a route and scored a touchdown.

When you\'re covering a fullback and you get toasted, you\'ve got some huge problems.

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

i don\'t think buchanon was all that great in college, and i don\'t think he\'ll be too great as a pro. i\'m glad the Saints didn\'t take him, but like i said they also shouldn\'t have taken Stallworth

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

Buchanon was good in college and will be in the nfl. The Raiders had so many problems last year that it may have effected his performance. I also highly doubt that he was the primary cover for a fullback. It may have looked like he got beat, but he was probably trying to catch someone else\'s man.

Phillip Buchanon
Year Team G Total Tckl Ast Sacks Int Yds Avg Lg TD Pass Def
2003 Oakland Raiders 16 42 40.0 2 0 6 176 29.3 83 2 4

Dunta Robinson Scouting Report
 

For all of the Donte bashers, here is some stats...you be the judge.

Player Year GP Rec Yds TD
Lelie \'02 16 35 525 2
\'03 16 37 628 2

Stallworth \'02 13 42 594 8
\'03 11 25 485 3


Stallworth missed 8 more games and is still right up there with Lelie in catches and yardage, but not touchdowns. Stallworth scored almost 3 times more TDs than Lelie in 8 fewer games. If I gould go back to the 2002 Draft I would still draft Stallworth over Lelie

[Edited on 19/4/2004 by Boogro]