00:00Amik Robertson is a slot corner that the commander signed yesterday.
00:07People can get caught up in PFF grades all they want.
00:10I can tell you, players hate them.
00:12Players think they're pretty stupid.
00:13PFF has a lot of value.
00:17I think the subjective stuff is a different question than the objective stuff.
00:23That said, most if not all NFL franchises subscribe to the service.
00:28So you've got to take some of it, good and bad.
00:32I, however, will listen to a coach talk about a player.
00:36This is from last October.
00:40Let's start with Dan Campbell, the Lions head coach,
00:43talking about newly signed Commander's Corner Amik Robertson.
00:47How good of a guy is he to have when the chips are maybe a little bit down,
00:51whether it be for injuries or whatever reason?
00:53Great guy. Great guy to have.
00:55You know, he's a, he's a skilled player and he's tenacious.
01:00He's feisty. He's confident, you know, and teammates love his energy because he does.
01:06He brings it all the time, brings it in practice, brings it in the games.
01:09He's a ball guy.
01:11And he is.
01:12He's kind of a, he's one of those guys that sparks our, you know, our defense,
01:17the other guys around him.
01:19That's Dan Campbell talking about Robertson.
01:22And I think feisty is a great word.
01:24Go back and watch.
01:26I would certainly say he's a feisty player.
01:29This is Lions D coordinator, Kelvin Shepard, talking about the undersized corner.
01:36That's like stuff that people don't know about this player.
01:38He's always had the underdog mentality.
01:41People's always told him he wasn't good enough.
01:43You're too small, this and that.
01:45And all he's done is put his head down and continue to work.
01:48And that's why you see this player be able to plug and play.
01:51That's not easy.
01:52It's one thing to plug and play.
01:53It's another thing to plug and play and get tasked with the receivers he's tasked with.
01:58I mean, we're talking about the elite of the elite in the league.
02:01And he doesn't bat an eye.
02:02And it's not fake.
02:03It's not phony.
02:04It's real.
02:05It's who he is.
02:06And it's a part of his DNA.
02:09You remember the guy called here yesterday and said his two friends called him
02:12and told him that the guy can't cover nothing at all?
02:15Does it sound like those coaches mean all that?
02:18No.
02:19And when you go back and look at some of the little plays and all he had,
02:21does it seem like he can't?
02:24That sounds like some haters to me.
02:27Now, I don't know if he's going to be the best of the best.
02:31But you know one damn thing.
02:32He's going to compete.
02:34And we've seen people not even compete.
02:39Yeah, man.
02:39I don't know.
02:41I think you've got to temper your expectations.
02:44But they had to add a corner.
02:47Now they have.
02:49Let's say the next move is to sign Tariq Woolen, right?
02:54Then all of a sudden everybody's going to love Robertson
02:56because he'd be the second corner they sign.
02:58So, like, a lot of this is all about kind of the expectation
03:04and the perception of the player.
03:07And I just wonder from a straight, who is this guy
03:14and how does he help the team?
03:15I think he helps Mikey Sammerstil a lot.
03:19And I think Mikey Sammerstil is a dude that, after the rookie season,
03:25people were ecstatic about.
03:26Yeah.
03:27And so, like, they want to get that guy back into a playmaking role.
03:33And I think Durante Jones is tasked with, hey, man, this is what we got.
03:38We're going to add.
03:39But, like, on some level, they just have to make the people that are here better.
03:46Mm-hmm.
03:47You know what I mean?
03:48Totally.
03:48And that's not easy.
03:51But I think you add a corner that's a super feisty guy that,
03:55if you watch these videos, the competitor in him, absolutely.
04:02He's straight that.
04:04Yeah.
04:04I'm going to say this, Jay.
04:08I won't temper my expectations because my expectations come from what I see
04:13a player doing.
04:15I'm not expecting him to be Darrell Green.
04:17Right.
04:18I'm not expecting him to be Darrell Revis.
04:21But I expect him, every time he steps on a damn football field,
04:24to give me some level of effort, which I have seen a lot of people not give me.
04:30If I get that all the time, just the one game I end up watching him,
04:35and I watch him closely because when you see somebody doing that to Jefferson,
04:40it makes you pay attention.
04:42Give me that type of effort.
04:43You may not have the same result every week, but you give me that damn effort every week,
04:48I can live with that.
04:50Because what will happen, other guys will see that,
04:55and they'll see him get more and more and more opportunity,
04:58then they'll realize how the hell they need to play football.
05:01We've seen too many people in this town over the years get on the field every week.
05:08You know when they say that it's a privilege to play football?
05:11That privilege is also granted based off of how you play.
05:14But we watch guys go out there and just stink up the joint all the damn time,
05:19and they stay on the field every week.
05:22If we can get a guy come in and compete at a level, he's out there,
05:25and everybody else start competing like that,
05:27all of a sudden your team begins to ascend.
05:30Well, and to that point, we saw late last season there was a game.
05:35I remain high on Quan Martin.
05:37He had a very down season last year.
05:40The entire secondary did.
05:41They were a mess repeatedly.
05:43Late in the year, we saw Quan get benched.
05:47Is there any way this move is intended to put more?
05:51I don't have questions about Amos.
05:53He got hurt, but Amos looked like a stud.
05:56I thought Amos looked really good.
05:57He looked like their best corner.
05:59Does this move put pressure on Mikey?
06:04If you are a competitor and someone comes in,
06:08it's not necessarily pressure,
06:10but it makes you have to lift your game.
06:13And if it doesn't make you lift your game,
06:15then you're delusional.
06:18Anytime someone came on the football team in my 14 years,
06:22in my position, whether it was a return guy,
06:27a running back, I felt some kind of way about it.
06:32But I never got mad at the person.
06:35All I did was have to go look inside of myself
06:37and start doing some things to change up what I'm doing.
06:40Because, in essence, if you are still balling,
06:45doing what you're supposed to do, you're still around.
06:47But there are people who see somebody else coming
06:49and they feel pressure.
06:51And you know what they do?
06:52They begin to falter.
06:54They get pissed off.
06:55They don't do what they're supposed to do.
06:56Then they get cut.
06:58So, he shouldn't feel pressure,
07:00but he should also say, you know what?
07:02Let me get back to what I was.
07:04But you think about it,
07:06as bad as we say Mikey played,
07:08if Mikey wasn't on the team,
07:10who was getting interceptions?
07:12I mean, he got four interceptions in a year
07:14if we thought he couldn't play.
07:17I still, I think Mikey has skill out this world.
07:23But just like any cornerback I watch in my life,
07:27they need pass rush to be at their best.
07:31And we had no pass rush.
07:34None.
07:34I think Mikey is their best playmaker
07:39in the defensive backfield.
07:41You know what I mean?
07:42Yeah.
07:43And I think maybe this Robertson move
07:46frees him up a little bit
07:48to be more of a playmaker.
07:49And I think that could have tremendous value.
07:52I mean, if you just look at the corners on the roster,
07:56like most positions,
07:58and if this is what people are mad about,
07:59I understand it.
08:00Like, they also just need to add people under contract.
08:03They keep operating in these one-year deals,
08:06and it's leaving them in some tight positions.
08:10And so, I think that's part of this too.
08:14I think you get Amos fully healthy,
08:17add Robertson,
08:19adding Owe is the biggest factor.
08:21Adding pass rush.
08:22I don't think they're done.
08:23I think they're going to add more pass rush.
08:25Get Dorrance back healthy.
08:27Get Wise back healthy.
08:28It can start to look different.
08:31Let's go toydos.
08:31All right.
08:31All right.
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