The Pittsburgh Steelers recently traded for wide receiver Allen Robinson from the Los Angeles Rams. The trade appears to be a relatively painless one for the Steelers as the teams swapped seventh-round picks (Pittsburgh at 251 and Los Angeles at 234), in addition to Robinson. The former Pro Bowler signed a big contract with the Rams last season, $46.5 million, and per Ian Rapoport from ESPN, Los Angles will pay $10 million total and Pittsburgh will give him $3.835 million signing bonus and a base salary of $1.165 million.
Los Angles Rams
The Steelers newest WR Allen Robinson.
Rams fans are glad to see the back of Robinson, for the most part, they considered him a bust in 2022. However, according to Arthur Moats, that may not be a fair assessment.
On his podcast, The Arthur Moats Experience, the former Steelers linebacker discusses the trade with his co-host Deke.
Steelers Pick Up Receiver Allen Robinson - Good Or Bad Move?
Moats thinks that fans are too worried about stats when they should be watching film of Robinson playing in 2022. Robinson went to a Pro Bowl in 2015 but has also struggled with some injuries, which makes his play inconsistent.
"In terms of his career, he has been over the thousand-yard receiving mark three times and scored 43 touchdowns, with over 6,500 receiving yards. Super productive player when he's been healthy, that's been the big thing with him. You look at his tape the past two years and the little bit of up and down is not always on him. I think he can win outside as an outside receiver. You can have him in the slot, he has some success in there. He does a really good job of beating press off the line of scrimmage and this is talking about him now, like last year's tape, not what he's done awhile ago."
"He consistently beats man-to-man press. He does a really good job of getting two hands on the football, locating and tracking it down the field. In terms of his route running, he does a really good job, he's more of a smooth style route runner."
Robinson has been on several teams and the quarterback situation on those teams is one of the things that Moats feels impeded his progress.
"I honestly thought his numbers should have been a lot better prior to his injury, but that wasn't because of him. Matthew Stafford was in and out of the lineup and that had a negative effect on him. I didn't think that Stafford and him didn't click, but I feel like Stafford wasn't feeding it to him. When I watch him, there were times where he's open to me and Stafford is just not trying to feed him a ton of targets."
"I feel like it's one of those scenarios where you get him more opportunities, I do think he has a lot more production available for him, even though his past two seasons statistically doesn't reflect that. That's why I was like make sure you check that tape."
AP Photo/Ashley Landis
The Steelers appear to have made a minimal-risk trade with the Los Angeles Rams for Allen Robinson.
Moats and Deke both agree that adding Robinson is a win-win situation with hardly any downside.
"This is still low-risk high reward, I don't want to say it's a steal because we don't know if he's gonna stay healthy, but if he stays healthy, this does look like a steal. We're gonna feel good about Allen Robinson, not just because of where he's at, but because of his track record. We've seen him do this at this level for a long time and at multiple locations with different quarterbacks, so you feel really good about what he brings."
Moats notes that he thinks Robinson will fit into this wide receiver room better than former Steelers receiver, Chase Claypool did. Claypool was traded to the Chicago Bears in 2022.
"To me, I like option A better than when we were doing the Claypool option. We tried that and it was like Claypool was too similar to Pickens, it didn't fit what we were trying to accomplish. I feel like Allen, talking about that third guy, this can give you the best of both worlds. We know he could cook from the slot, we know he has outside potential as well as good blocking."
Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool celebrates after getting a huge first down.
Moats also sees Robinson being a help to the run game with his blocking skills.
"Remember we talked about the running game two seasons ago, these receivers gotta hold a block. Every time we go to the perimeters, they all over and dudes are coming up hitting them. He's going to get hands on you. He has some alternatives where if he doesn't want to get hands on a guy, he'll give you a release and just get the guy running with him. So he has multiple ways to make sure that his guy isn't impacting the play in the run game.
It is reasonable for fans to be cautiously optimistic about Robinson joining the team. The big question will be how healthy will he be in 2023.
What do you think about the Robinson trade? Have you watched any film of him? Do you agree with Moats and Deke about the ways he can help the team? Comment below.
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