In three seasons with the Bears, Robinson has appeared in 34 games with eight starts and registered 49 tackles, three tackles-for-loss and 2.0 sacks. Last year the 6-5, 253-pounder played in six games and recorded seven tackles.
“I don’t even know about last year, to be honest with you, in terms of what that looked like,” Johnson said. “But I can tell you that he has popped off. He looks the part for sure, and as we know, [with] O-line and D-line play, it’s hard to really gauge too much [without pads], but he does have a quick first step off the ball. He lined up on our left tackles quite a bit here over the last few weeks and you could tell that he got the edge on them.”
A second defensive player who stood out to Johnson was rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II, a fourth-round selection from Maryland.
“I thought the player we probably saw the most improvement from when he stepped in to now was Ruben Hyppolite,” Johnson said. “He’s done a nice job learning. He’s swimming a little bit, but he’s taking it seriously. [Linebackers] Coach Richard Smith has done a fantastic job with him over the course of the last few weeks.”