Kenny
Robinson Jr..
Kenny
Robinson Jr..
West Virginia
"The only prospect in the 2020 class who was already a professional, and the only safety in it whose best trait, taking the ball away, was proven at two levels."Pre-draft read
Robinson is a rangy free safety who plays the deep middle with his eyes. West Virginia parked him at the top of the coverage and let him drive on the quarterback, and he reads route combinations early enough to beat receivers to the throw. The ball production came from anticipation rather than from recovery speed, and once the catch is made he is a genuine return threat.
The second trait is length in space. At a listed 6-2 he covers ground on the crossers and post routes that strain most single-high safeties and he can match up on tight ends when a defense wants to stay in nickel. He is more comfortable playing forward than turning and running, but as a single-high center fielder with ball skills he has a clear NFL job.
Single-high coverage structure that lets a free safety play the deep middle and hunt the ball
Year 1 core special teams player and third safety; ceiling is a starting center fielder in a Cover 3 or Cover 1 defense
A box-heavy scheme that asks its safeties to line up over the tight end, set the edge and win in the run alley on early downs
His pro case was always the coverage half of the job; teams that needed a two-way safety were never going to take him this early.
Kenny Robinson Official WVU Sophomore Highlights
All-Big 12 sophomore reel: single-high range, four interceptions and the driving break on the throw.
Kenny Robinson WVU Freshman Highlights
True freshman tape including the 94-yard interception return touchdown against Texas.
Kenny Robinson: The Most Unique Prospect in the 2020 NFL Draft (Scouting Report)
Pre-draft breakdown of the college and XFL film and the unusual path to the draft.
Robinson is a single-high safety with a two-year college body of work and an unusual professional detour in the middle of it. He started as a true freshman, intercepted three passes and returned two of them for scores, then earned first-team All-Big 12 honors as a sophomore with 77 tackles and four more interceptions. Seven picks in 24 games is the headline, and the tape supports it: he sees concepts fast and plays the deep middle like a center fielder.
The context is complicated. He was dismissed from West Virginia before the 2019 season for academic fraud, which he owned publicly in a letter to general managers, and rather than transfer and sit he signed with the XFL. He started all five games for the St. Louis BattleHawks before the league folded, posting 21 tackles and two interceptions and making the midseason All-XFL team. That made him the only 2020 prospect with professional film, and the only XFL player drafted that year.
The board discounted him for the layoff, the off-field flag and a thin run-defense profile, but the range and the ball skills were real. Carolina took him at 152 as the fifth straight defensive pick of a rebuild, an aggressive bet on traits and maturity at a price where a special teams floor makes it safe.
- 01
Ball production
Seven interceptions in 24 college games, two returned for touchdowns, plus two more picks in five XFL starts, all driven by reading the quarterback.
- 02
Deep-middle range
Plays the top of the coverage like a center fielder and gets width on the post and the deep dig from a true single-high alignment.
- 03
Anticipation
Diagnoses route combinations early and drives downhill on the throw instead of waiting to react to the receiver as it is completed.
- 04
Return skill with the ball
Turns takeaways into yards, including a 94-yard interception return as a freshman that remains his career long.
- 05
Professional experience
Started all five XFL games for St. Louis and made the midseason All-XFL team, the only 2020 prospect with real pro film.
- 01
Run fits
Inconsistent taking on blocks and filling downhill, and PFF dinged his run defense in the XFL as well as at West Virginia.
- 02
Tackling reliability
At a lean playing weight he leaves yards on the ground when he arrives at speed and has to break down in the open field.
- 03
Layoff and rust
A full season away from college football, with no combine or private workouts because of the pandemic shutdown, left a thin evaluation window.
- 04
Off-field flag
The academic fraud dismissal from West Virginia required a full character review, even though he addressed it directly and publicly.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | West Virginia | 12 | 46 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 2018 | West Virginia | 12 | 77 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Career | — | 24 | 123 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 1 |
Official West Virginia totals; seasons sum to the career line. Two of his three freshman interceptions were returned for touchdowns, including a 94-yard score against Texas. Fumble recoveries before 2018 are not documented, so they are left unset. Did not play in 2019 after being dismissed from school; started all five XFL games for St. Louis in 2020 with 21 tackles and two interceptions.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Coverage-first center fielder whose value lives entirely on the back end.
Rangy single-high safety with ball skills who grew into a full-time starter.
Athletic safety who stuck as a special teams body without securing defensive snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Carolina got a special teams contributor and never much more. Robinson was mostly a coverage-unit player as a rookie in 2020, then carved out a bigger role in 2021 with 182 defensive snaps and 17 tackles while being targeted only once in coverage. The Matt Rhule staff that drafted him was fired five games into 2022, and Robinson spent that entire season on the practice squad without appearing in a game. Pittsburgh signed him to a futures deal in January 2023 and he pushed for the fourth safety job through camp, playing 97 defensive snaps in the preseason, but the Steelers waived him in late August. He landed with the Birmingham Stallions that November and has stayed there, posting 34 tackles, two tackles for loss and an interception in 2024 before re-signing for another season.
In hindsight the bet was defensible and simply did not land. The instincts that produced seven college interceptions never translated to a defense that trusted him with a real coverage role, and the year away from college football cost him development he never recovered. He was not a bad pick at 152, but two seasons of NFL snaps and a productive second act in the UFL is a miss.