Robinson Takes Another Step and Earns Respect from Wirfs in the Process

Chop Robinson keeps learning lessons as he prepares for his first NFL season with the Miami Dolphins, and he got a good challenge assignment.

When the Dolphins practiced with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Wednesday, Robinson found himself going head-to-head with Tristan Wirfs — former first-round pick, owner of a recent lucrative contract extension — in a series of reps pitting pass rushers against offensive linemen.

Robinson had one great rep in which he cleanly beat Wirfs by getting under his pads and overpowering him, though in the final analysis, they probably split their handful of reps.

The outcome, though, didn’t matter as much as Robinson was able to get out of that work because great competition only makes players better.

“I mean, for me, coming into this practice, after working my fastball, my swiping, everything like that, I really just wanted to peek into other things, like using power and stuff like that to set up my fastball whenever,” Robinson said. “So I was just sitting down with Coach [Ryan] Crowe, talking about that before we came out here. Came out here and started working different things and I was able to get underneath his pads but he’s a hell of a player. He was talking to me out there saying some things I did good, some things on how I hit him. So it was just it was just a back-and-forth competition, so I’m just getting better and I’m able to I’m blessed to be able to learn from him.”

Robinson learned something from Wirfs in this joint practice and earned the Bucs tackle’s respect — if he didn’t already have it.

“I mean, he just sees something great in me,” Chop said. “That’s what he said. And, of course, he’s great. He just got paid a lot. So I’m just excited to learn.”

The Dolphins’ first-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft continues to get a lot of work this training camp as he prepares for what could be a big role in his rookie season.

It’s not facing Wirfs that’s providing lessons, though. Robinson is finding out that life in the NFL is a bit different than in college.

“I feel like in the NFL, some running backs are very patient, and they’re able to hit the hole very quickly,” Robinson said. “And in college, it’s like running backs get the ball [and] they just wanna go. So that’s the biggest difference between here and college. So I’m just learning from that, play by play, especially with our offense. And we got the great backs, so I’m just learning every single day.

“The biggest challenge for me was, I’ll say, just the speed and just learning the game, that’s it. Just in college, you’re just as fast as everybody. And here, it’s like some of the offense linemen are faster than you, so it’s just different, but I’m learning day by day from the first day of camp until now. I feel like I got way better with that.”

Facing Wirfs was just another big step in that process.

It was like a wow moment for Robinson, another realization that he’s living the dream of being in the NFL.

“I mean, when I went up against them, I was just like, it’s crazy that I get to go against him,” Robinson said. “But it still hasn’t hit me yet because I’m still competing and I’m grinding every single day. I feel like maybe once I get a little break or something, it’ll probably hit me.”