Mark
Robinson.
Mark
Robinson.
Mississippi
"A running back who rushed for twelve hundred yards across three schools, walked on at Ole Miss, switched to linebacker in April and made ninety tackles that fall, then gave Pittsburgh three years of special teams."Pre-draft read
A converted running back playing downhill linebacker, and the conversion is the whole scouting report. Robinson is five-eleven and 230 pounds with 34 bench reps and the contact balance of a player who spent three college seasons carrying the ball, and he attacks downhill through gaps rather than reading and reacting from depth.
That aggression is both the appeal and the risk. He fills fast and finishes tackles, and a single season at the position produced 90 tackles in the Southeastern Conference. But the instincts are borrowed, not learned: he overruns angles when the ball bounces outside, and his 29 1/2-inch arms leave him nothing when a guard reaches him first. Coverage was almost entirely new to him.
A downhill run defense that lets him key the ball and attack a gap, with a second linebacker handling the coverage responsibilities behind him.
Year 1: kick and punt coverage specialist. Ceiling: a two-down starting linebacker who comes off the field on third down.
A match-coverage defense that asks its linebackers to carry tight ends up the seam, the one job his conversion never prepared him for.
Pittsburgh used him exactly as the profile suggested, which is why he lasted three seasons there.
Mark Robinson Highlights: Welcome to Pittsburgh!
His Ole Miss tape from the one season he played linebacker in college.
Mark Robinson: Best of 2022
Rookie-year snaps from his four-game debut with the Steelers.
Mark Robinson: Best of 2023
The season that included his first career sack against Baltimore.
Robinson came out of Lee County High School in Leesburg, Georgia as a running back, and that is how he spent his first three college seasons. He rushed for 332 yards and five touchdowns on 75 carries at Presbyterian in 2017, transferred to Southeast Missouri State and ran for 364 yards and four scores on 74 carries in 2018, then had his best year on the ground in 2019: 117 carries, 546 yards and seven touchdowns.
Then he bet on himself. He transferred to Ole Miss as a walk-on and did not play at all in 2020, waiting for a position that had not been offered yet. In April 2021 he switched to linebacker, earned a scholarship in June and started the season as a first-year player at a position he had never played in a game.
One season was enough. He appeared in all 13 games for a 10-win Ole Miss team and recorded 90 tackles and three sacks, the most productive debut any converted running back in the country had that year, and finished his college career with 50 games across three schools, 94 tackles, three sacks and 1,242 rushing yards with 16 touchdowns. The evaluation was unusual by design: teams were drafting a one-year sample and a set of physical tools, with the bet that a 34-rep bench presser who had already remade himself once would keep improving.
- 01
Ninety tackles in his first season at the position
an SEC production number from a player who had been a running back four months earlier.
- 02
Exceptional functional strength
34 bench reps at 230 pounds, the kind of upper-body power that lets him shed guards at the point of attack.
- 03
Downhill trigger and contact balance
three years of carrying the ball taught him how to run through tackles and finish them.
- 04
Proven self-motivation
walked on at Ole Miss, sat out a full season, switched positions and earned a scholarship within three months.
- 05
Special teams value from day one
a compact, physical body type built for coverage units while he learns defensive responsibilities.
- 01
One season of experience at the position
the instincts, keys and pass-game responsibilities are all still theoretical.
- 02
Short arms for a linebacker
a 29 1/2-inch reach means blockers get into his frame before he can extend and disengage.
- 03
Overruns plays when the ball bounces
his aggression outpaces his eyes, and he gives up angles to outside runs.
- 04
Coverage is close to unevaluated
he was not asked to carry backs or read routes often enough for anyone to project it.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Presbyterian | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Southeast Missouri State | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Southeast Missouri State | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Ole Miss | 13 | 90 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 50 | 94 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Robinson played running back at Presbyterian and Southeast Missouri State and only moved to linebacker in April 2021, so the defensive rows for 2017 through 2019 are verified near-zeros from a player on offense, not missing data. His rushing career, tracked in the same source table, totals 266 carries for 1,242 yards and 16 touchdowns: 75 for 332 and five scores in 2017, 74 for 364 and four scores in 2018, and 117 for 546 and seven scores in 2019. He did not play at all in 2020 after transferring to Ole Miss as a walk-on, so no row exists for that year. The four season lines sum exactly to the career totals of 50 games, 94 tackles and three sacks. Tackles for loss and pass breakups are omitted because the source does not itemize them by season.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Steelers-drafted linebacker whose role stayed on coverage units before he moved on.
Undersized, physical two-down linebacker who built a long career on downhill play and special teams.
Short-armed college producer whose NFL work never moved past practice squads.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Pittsburgh took him 225th and kept him for three years. He debuted on October 16, 2022 against Tampa Bay and appeared in four games as a rookie with nine tackles, then grew into a core special teams player and backup inside linebacker. His first career sack came on January 6, 2024 in a 17-10 win over Baltimore. Across three Steelers seasons he accumulated 50 tackles, a sack and three forced fumbles, never as a starter but always as a body the coaching staff trusted on Sundays.
The fourth year came apart. Pittsburgh waived him on August 25, 2025, and what followed was a full tour of the AFC: New England's practice squad on August 28, the Jets' active roster on September 23, waived on October 18, back to Pittsburgh's practice squad on November 4, released November 25, signed to Cleveland's practice squad on December 2 and released a week later. Four teams in four months. For a seventh-round pick who had played linebacker for exactly one season before the draft, three years of NFL special teams and a sack against the Ravens is more than the slot usually returns.