SANTA CLARA — Death, taxes and Rashard Robinson being the most vocal player at a 49ers practice.
Those things are certain in the year 2017.
“Just trying to get that juice going,” Robinson said Saturday after Day 2 of training camp.
A year after proving himself to be one of the better young cornerbacks in the NFL, Robinson has become comfortable enough to disperse chatter at a rapid rate. Alongside his expanding potential, it’s becoming a fixture for this 49ers defense. He’s no longer flying under the radar at a practice.
Some of it’s smack talk, some of it’s encouragement, some of it may be plain gibberish from time to time. 49ers.com needs to do us all a favor and stick a microphone on him for an upcoming practice. Receiver Aldrick Robinson was the recipient of some Robinson chiding on Friday. After breaking up a pass right in front of reporters, No. 33 hopped up and hollered: “No A-Rob! Not today A-Rob!” More babbling continued between the two as they jogged toward the sideline.
“If I feel like practice is flat, or just needs a little bit of energy, I can get everyone going,” Robinson said. “I can get it competitive.”
Robinson’s main source of competition thus far has been Pierre Garcon, a fellow South Florida native. The two have locked horns on more than one occasion and it’s been Garcon who has gotten the best of Robinson a handful of times to start camp. It’s probably a good thing for the cornerback in the long haul to be humbled in practice by a polished veteran, but that hasn’t slowed down the 22-year-old’s enthusiasm.
“It’s cool, that’s the kind of person he is,” Garcon said of the verbal warfare. “He likes to talk to get himself going. It works for him. He’s doing well, he’s working hard. It’s not coming from a mean place. He’s just working hard, trying to get himself hyped up.”
Is it ever a distraction? Not at all, according to the 49ers. Kyle Shanahan has not discouraged Robinson from this behavior. If you remember correctly, last season Joe Staley told reporters he wanted to be more vocal in 2017. NaVorro Bowman has always said he’s a follow-by-example guy. Plain and simple, the 49ers need more jibber-jabber, both on the field and in the locker room.
“I just like that he’s himself. I think that’s who Rashard is,” Shanahan said. “I just want people to be themselves. He acts the same way on the practice field as he does when I see him. He’s always talking. He’s got a smile on his face. He likes to mess with you. We like to mess with him back.
“I like that he’s a confident guy who’s not scared to be himself. Someone’s talking a lot and that’s not who they are, they’re putting on a show, everyone can see through that and those are the guys who will irritate you. I think Rashard’s been that since the day he was born and will probably be that until the day he dies and I respect him for it.”
Robinson has backed up his talk with a growing confidence in his own skill set. He told reporters he’s made it clear to the coaching staff he wants to mark the No. 1 receiver each and every week. Last season, Robinson led all rookie cornerbacks in coverage snaps per reception (13.2). His receiver was locked down so often, quarterbacks stopped looking his way.
Part of Robinson’s growing role is out of necessity. The 49ers are flipping a coin to decide if Keith Reaser or Dontae Johnson will start opposite the 6-foot-1 Robinson. But part of this is also Robinson grasping that he has the skills to be a shutdown NFL cornerback.
“They know that already,” Robinson said about telling his coaches he wants to face the top receiver. “For me being so competitive, it doesn’t matter who it is, whatever the task is, I want to take it.
“This year, there’s just like a different look in this team’s eye. We’ve been slept on by so many people and people doubting us. But they really don’t know what (we’ve) been doing. But we can’t really show them until the end of the day.”
As Robinson says, he’s getting that juice going. It’s a big role for a young player, but everyone watching in Santa Clara can tell it’s working.
