St. Louis Rams Find Star in Marcus Roberson

By Curt Popejoy | Sep 15, 2015

You know the old saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”? The St. Louis Rams lived that on Sunday in their road victory over the Seattle Seahawks. The victory itself was somewhat tainted by the injury to starting cornerback Trumaine Johnson, but there was a silver lining.

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Johnson was injured making a tackle on wide receiver Tyler Lockett in the second quarter. The play itself was rather benign, and as he made his way off the field, I wondered if it was an arm injury, rather than a possible concussion. Johnson went through testing on the sidelines and was unable to return after failing those protocols. Johnson will have to be cleared before he can play next week against the Washington Redskins.

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In the face of this loss, it put second-year cornerback Marcus Roberson into the starting spot opposite Janoris Jenkins. All Roberson did was play 71 percent of snaps at cornerback, and finished with six tackles and one pass defended. What didn’t show up in the box score was Roberson did a great job keeping Lockett out of the game plan for a huge chunk of the game.

Roberson declared for the draft after his junior year, but was inexplicably undrafted. The Rams recognized that although inconsistent, had an NFL-caliber set of skills. Now, in his second season, Roberson is showing that teams were wrong in passing him up in the draft.

As a draft analyst, I loved what I saw of Roberson on film, but lapses in concentration really hurt him. One play his footwork is solid, and the next sloppy. One play anticipation and play recognition happens in an instant, and the next he’s burned deep.

Some additional character red flags and less-than-exceptional triangle numbers spelled disaster for his draft stock. Putting all that aside, Roberson’s confidence and energy were never missing in games, and he showed that on Sunday.

The injury to Johnson also opened the door for defensive back Lamarcus Joyner to see more snaps, and he made the most of them. Joyner is such a fundamentally sound football player, and so scheme-versatile it is hard to find a reason to keep him off the field.

However, this is all about the emergence of Roberson on a huge stage. No one would have been shocked if he would have stepped in and fallen flat on his face against the NFC champions. It isn’t known whether or not Johnson will clear concussion protocols and be able to play in Week 2, but regardless, Roberson showed he is more than up for the challenge if he is asked to start again.

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