MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Chop Robinson is a kid from Maryland who went to school in Pennsylvania. Mohamed Kamara grew up in New Jersey before attending college in Colorado.
Before last weekend’s Miami Dolphins rookie camp, they had never shared the field. Not for practice. Not for a game.
And yet, when the Dolphins drafted them two days apart (Robinson in the first round, Kamara in the fifth) they seemed like old friends — if you’re the type of person who wants to dominate your friends to the point of near-embarrassment.
Get To Know Miami Dolphins Rookies Chop Robinson, Mohamed Kamara
So how did this pass-rushing partnership come to be?
The story begins a few months back in suburban Phoenix.
That’s where Robinson and Kamara — along with roughly a half-dozen other pass rushers, including eventual draft picks Laiatu Latu (Indianapolis Colts), Xavier Thomas (Arizona Cardinals), and Nathaniel Watson (Cleveland Browns) — prepared for the biggest job interviews of their lives: The NFL Scouting Combine.
Robinson and Kamara prepped for Combine testing together at Exos Sports Performance Training, competing against each other in almost everything they did.
And when one got the better of it, the other heard about it.
“He always talks trash,” Robinson said at Dolphins rookie minicamp Friday. “Everything we were doing in training, whether it’s the get-offs or the slip or we in the weight room, he always wants to compete. That’s just him competing. I was fine with it because it’s pushing me and pushing him.”
Added Kamara: “We have a friendly-hate relationship. But that’s my guy right there. We’re always going to help each other in any aspect. Most of the time, we were just competing. Most of the time, it was just realizing how good he is and how good I can be, because he’s a hell of a talent. So I’m just trying to get there. He went first round for a reason.”
Credit Exos for preparing them both for the Combine.
Chop, who forsook candy for 12 weeks before the event to get himself in the best possible shape, ran a blistering 4.48-second 40-yard dash, a 9.14-second shuttle, and broad jumped 10’8″.
His measurables are in the 97th percentile among defensive ends, even despite his underwhelming size (6’2″, 254 pounds). Robinson celebrated his Combine performance with a package of Swedish Fish.
Kamara (6’1″, 248) was almost as impressive. He posted a 4.58-second 40, broad jumped 10’3″ and posted a vertical of 34.5″.
Despite being part of the same draft class, Kamara (who turns 25 in two weeks) is substantially older than Robinson (21). But it wasn’t until he proved at Exos that he had the chops to play with the best did he truly feel like he belonged in the league.
“Man, he goes,” Kamara said of Robinson.
Robinson added this of Kamara:
“Mo is a special guy. I feel like a lot of people talk down on his size and everything, but he can pass rush. He can stop the run. He can do everything that you’ve seen on tape. He put it on tape so you can see it. I was training with Mo down in Arizona, so we already have a bond, a brotherhood going through that whole process. So we’re just going to stick together here and just bring everybody along.”