Deerfield Beach’s Aaron Robinson left Alabama for UCF. He became a 3rd-round pick anyway
Aaron Robinson was on a promising track as a freshman for the Alabama Crimson Tide before life threatened to get in the way.
His mother, Norma Cartagena, needed help at home and Robinson felt like he needed to return to Florida to help care for her and his three younger younger siblings. He knew leaving Alabama and sitting out a year as a transfer could put a dent in his NFL aspirations, but he also always felt confident in his own ability, so he headed to the UCF Knights to get at least within driving distance of South Florida.
In Orlando, he developed into an NFL prospect. Now he’s headed to the New York Giants in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The Giants selected Robinson with the seventh pick of the third round Friday — No. 71 overall — to give Deerfield Beach a Draft pick for the third straight year.
He’s the seventh player from South Florida to be picked in the first two days of the Draft, the fifth from Broward County and the fourth corner from Broward.
Robinson’s ascent in the last six years has been astonishing. After playing wide receiver for two years at West Boca Raton, Robinson joined the Bucks as a transfer ahead of his junior season and didn’t have a single scholarship offer when he arrived. He broke his collarbone in Deerfield Beach’s preseason game and missed his entire junior season, so he went into the spring ahead of his senior year without any college interest.
Once Robinson got on the field for spring practices in 2015, schools couldn’t help but take notice. As the Bucks started to go on college visits for 7-on-7 camps throughout the spring and summer, offers started to pour in and the defensive back became one of the most coveted three-star recruits in the country, according to 247Sports.com. He initially orally committed to the Florida Gators, before flipping and signing with Alabama on National Signing Day in 2016.
As a freshman, he was on track to be a potential fixture in the Crimson Tide’s secondary. He played as a backup corner and contributed on special teams, but ultimately felt the need to transfer after just one year, even though it meant sitting out a season and putting a hitch in his progress to the NFL.
Even once he took the field for UCF, his path wasn’t smooth. He sustained a serious concussion in his Knights debut and played in only seven games as a redshirt sophomore. He finally joined the starting lineup as a redshirt junior, then solidified himself as one of the nation’s top defensive backs as a redshirt senior because of his unique blend of size and skill.
The 6-foot-1, 193-pound athlete has the build of an outside corner, but mostly played as a nickelback throughout his time in Central Florida. He finished his final season at UCF with 41 tackles and a team-leading seven pass break-ups to earn second-team All-American Athletic Conference honors for the second straight year. In the NFL, his versatility will make him valuable and put him in position to potentially start early in his career.
