Bengals have reason to believe in Navy's Landon Robinson

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Bengals have reason to believe in Navy's Landon Robinson originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Navy draft pick that got the most attention on Saturday was Eli Heidenreich, taken by his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers while he was in attendance at the draft downtown.

But just a handful of picks earlier, the Cincinnati Bengals took Landon Robinson out of the Naval Academy, and there's reason to believe in him.

Yes, he's just a seventh-round pick, which should keep all expectations in check.

But Robinson has a lot going for him, beyond just being someone who spent his college career at Navy.

He's a defensive tackle but undersized at 5-foot-11 and 293 pounds. In his career at Navy, he had 153 tackles in 38 games played, including 18.5 tackles for loss with 14.5 sacks.

He was the AAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2025, a first-team All-American, which says about as much about his productivity on the interior defensive line as anything.

This is what Bengals coach Zac Taylor said about Robinson after the draft:

"Just too good to pass up... He did really well at the All-Star Game as well, that's another chance to play against different competition. That's the opportunity he got, and he took advantage of it. That's all the data and film you have access to. Everybody that watched him, liked it, and here he is."

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And this is the mindset that Robinson shared about his game with Cincinnati media:

"I think my play style, my speed, my quickness, my ability to just be quick and fast. I use my strength to be able to get in the backfield, but also use my natural leverage to be able to be sturdy in the run game and just use that to go make plays, and free up blocks for everyone else on the defense to go make plays."

Robinson will join a room now led by additions Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen, who should be strong mentors.

He has quite the athletic background as a four-sport athlete in high school (football, baseball, wrestling, track & field).

His father had athletic genes, too, as a gymnast at Kent State.

And Robinson's major at Navy sounds quite impressive: Cyber operations.

Yeah, the Bengals got an impressive human being into their building.

More NFL Draft news:​

• We know who Mr. Irrelevant is
• Mel Kiper Jr. doesn't know how to quit Shedeur Sanders
• Browns' pick used to draft Taylen Green was traded 6 times
• Eli Heidenreich showed what NFL dreams are made of
• Raiders sign guy known as 'The Tokyo Toe'

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