(Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
As much as I love watching NFL football, it's Draft season that is my favorite time of year. Having the time to scout so many great players and, in some cases, speak to those players is always something I've loved to do.
One player that immediately stood out to me as I began scouting this year's class was Navy defensive tackle Landon Robinson. His blend of speed and power is truly remarkable at his size.
Anyone who watches his tape will come away impressed, but what I was most curious about was who he was off the field. It always fascinated me to think about elite athletes such as himself choosing to join a school like Navy or Army.
There are obvious complications when it comes to going to the NFL from one of those programs and what that means for your service time in the military, which is something I have to imagine crosses every player's mind as they make the decision to attend one of those schools.
To me, it shows a lot about their character and pride in being an American while also wanting to succeed as an athlete. Becoming a professional football player is difficult enough without adding the rigors of joining a branch of the United States Military. It takes a special person and mindset to be able to handle all of that, especially as such a young person.
So, to say the least, I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to connect with Robinson on social media and eventually interview him during what must be a very busy time in his life, preparing for the NFL Draft.
I got the chance to ask him about his childhood all the way through his days playing at Navy, and came away even more impressed with who he is as a person than who he is as a football player (and he is a damn good football player).
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
As a child, you would do hours of ladder footwork drills with weights on your legs. How does that translate to playing defensive tackle?
I think just from the foundation, just building the foundation of athleticism, helped me out a ton… I played baseball growing up, so that was like my main sport. Originally, the leg weights were for when I was a catcher, so that I could have a faster pop-up. I just used my feet and continuously did footwork and ladder work to have faster feet as a catcher.
I've been playing football, but it was for baseball, so then when I started getting on the football field more and started seeing what it was really about, I had fast feet, and I had quick feet. I think that foundation grew as I grew in my love for the game. I was able to see that improvement in my football life, so I attribute a lot to that, just that early work, early on, just to build that foundation of good athleticism.
How did your father Lance's wrestling training as a child prepare you to play in the trenches at the collegiate football level?
Wrestling is what I would be doing if I weren't playing football. Wrestling is such a good sport that I think every kid should play just because it teaches you so much. How to maneuver your body, how to tackle, and how to build yourself up to have a good balance of speed, strength, and quickness.
There is also the mental side of it. That is just having to go against an opponent, just you and him in the ring, competing against yourself on a daily basis to get as good as you possibly can be for your team. In a wrestling duel, it's you getting points for your team, and then you're the only one who can do it on the mat at one single time. That mental side of just building that competition, that camaraderie within your team, it has so many layers to it, just to grow you as an athlete in general. I think it's helped me a ton throughout my football career. Wrestling is awesome.
When you got to Navy, you were a 240 lb. defensive end. How did you manage to put on 50 pounds in just a matter of months?
It was definitely not easy. It was the end of my freshman year to my sophomore year. In that summer, I was about 235 to 240 around there, and then I just got moved to D-line from linebacker. I was like, wow, this is fun, just being able to use my quickness and my speed to get in the backfield and make plays.
I went to my coaches, and I went to my nutritionist, and I was like, hey coach, who do I need to watch? What do I need to do to make this my position and be as good as I possibly can at it? My coach gave me the guys that I named earlier, like Aaron Donald, Geno Atkins, and Calijah Kancey. I watched those guys on a daily basis just throughout the whole summer, and to this day, I still do that.
I then went to my nutritionist, and he gave me a 5,500-calorie meal plan to just eat and eat and eat. I was eating that every single day. As I was gaining knowledge of the game, I was gaining weight physically, and I would go on the field and do footwork drills and run so that I could keep my quickness.
By the time my sophomore year came around, I was 285 to 290, and I was still just as quick and as fast as I was before I gained weight. It's truly a blessing, and it was definitely a journey, but well worth it for sure.
What would you want to say to a high schooler right now who is considering joining the Navy or any branch of the military?
I would tell them that it's a very unique experience. It's not for everyone. Right now, everybody enjoys the military side of things, but it's a very unique experience, and it's a great opportunity if you have the dream of playing professional sports and you want to have a successful career later on.
I think it's a great opportunity to do both. If you can go to the NFL, the NFL is a very short-lived career. It's a very short-lived organization, so having that fallback, of having a degree from a service academy, is a very good thing to fall back on. That degree from there can open a lot of doors for you later on down the road.
That's definitely what I would tell a younger person: just give it a shot and give it a chance. It's an opportunity to have two very good opportunities in front of you if you put in the work and you put in the time to be great.
You are majoring in cyber operations. What does that entail?
Cyber is definitely a growing field. With all the technology nowadays, it's very needed and very helpful to have people who are familiar with it. That's my major, and that's what I've been studying for four years now. It's pretty much just working with computers, working with how to hack people, how to gain an advantage through computers, and then how to defend yourself against other people hacking you or attacking you in whatever way that they try to. It's pretty much just been learning about that, and it's really cool. I really enjoy it, and later on down the road, I want to do something that involves cyber.
What are the complications of being in the Navy and pursuing a career in the NFL at the same time? Do you have to serve before playing in the NFL?
It's a good question. A lot of people don't really understand just how it works. When you hear Navy or anything with the military, it's kind of like, 'Alright, can they even go play football?' But no, you totally can.
Each service academy gets three waivers that they can give to any athlete of any sport to go play professional sports. I was thankfully able to get one of those waivers.
When you get a contract with a team, you get put on a different contract than everyone else. It's more like a 10-year reserve contract versus five years of active duty, which is what the original contract is. That's pretty much how it works. It doesn't interfere with anything.
In 2023, you were the only Nose Tackle to play on kickoff coverage. Was that something you asked to do? Can you do it in the NFL?
It was a really cool experience. I remember just talking to my kickoff coach and the special teams coach. He was saying he needed some guys for kickoff, and he was like, "You have to be able to run 20 miles per hour to be on the kickoff unit." I just took it as a challenge to kind of play his card to see if he was really being serious about it.
So, I went and ran 20 miles per hour. The first day of fall camp, I was on kickoff, and it was really fun. I just enjoyed flying down there and making plays. The first tackle I made was against Notre Dame, opening my sophomore year. I remember flying down there, and I remember pushing my guy all the way back into the returner and then just wrapping up the returner and taking him down. I was just livid after that.
It's so much fun just being on special teams in general. I enjoyed it, and hopefully I can do that at the next level to help out whatever team I need to.
You are someone who loves spending time in the weight room and has been recorded squatting 665 lbs. and bench pressing 465 lbs. You were also named on Bruce Feldman's "Freaks List" three years in a row. What did that mean to you, and what's next for you in the weight room?
The freaks list was something that, early on in my naval academy career, was like the first sign of people kind of taking notice of me. I really appreciate him putting me on the list, obviously, and just giving me the accolades. To be on the freaks list three years in a row is just a big feat. I appreciate him for noticing me and giving me those accolades.
In the future, my goals are to hit 700 lbs. on the squat rack, and I want to hit 500 lbs. on the bench. That would be huge. Then, I just want to keep improving my vertical. A 33-inch vertical is pretty good, but I want to continue to strive for more and get it higher and higher.
Being on that list is such an honor. I want to thank him for putting me on it three years in a row. It was really cool.
It's criminal that Navy DT Landon Robinson wasn't invited to the Combine.
Such a fun player. Would love to see the #Packers draft him. pic.twitter.com/H4iSDH57iZ
— Eli Berkovits (@BookOfEli_NFL) February 17, 2026
What does the Navy vs Army rivalry mean to you? How did it feel to win your final two games against them?
The Army-Navy game is one of the biggest rivalries in college football. Nothing else matters besides that game. You can have a great season, you can have a terrible season, but the Army-Navy game is a season in and of itself.
Just being able to play that game means so much to so many people. You have the press conferences, and you have the jersey reveal, and all this stuff just for one game, and then everybody on social media is talking about it. It truly means a lot.
I went to the prep school, and we lost in my prep school year and then my first two years at the academy. Being able to win in my junior year was the biggest. It just meant so much to me, and it still does. It's such a great game, and being able to finish out my last two years winning it just means everything. It's super special, and the game is so much bigger than football, so it's awesome.
What did it mean to you to be named co-captain for the 2025 season by your Navy teammates?
The Naval Academy, the best and brightest in the country, go to this school. Some of the brightest guys I've ever met are walking through the halls here every single day. Being able to be named the captain of the team means a lot. It's truly an honor to be a captain of such great men and great leaders who will one day go on and do a lot of great things in this world.
It means a lot. It truly is just such an honor. I was also named the deputy captain of captains, which is the captain of all varsity teams. That was another accolade that I gained as well. That's an honor as well. As I said, there are just so many bright people here, so for them to see me as being able to lead them and help them throughout the season, throughout the year, I take a lot of pride in it, and I'm just extremely thankful to have that.
What parts of your game have you improved the most since your freshman year?
I've improved in multiple ways, just continuing to work and continuing to find ways to improve myself on a daily basis. I think I got quicker. I think my strength has gotten a lot stronger, and being able to take on blocks and play my gap, and use my natural leverage of being undersized to play gaps. People call me undersized, but it doesn't matter. I've been able to use my size to my advantage to get underneath blocks to play my gap.
My pass rushing has gotten better and better every year. I think it can continue to get better throughout time, just working on technique, working my hands. I've improved with that, but also just my leadership. Early on at Navy, I wasn't very vocal, and I just kind of sat back and watched. Obviously, you want to lead the team, so I think my leadership has gotten a lot better.
What are you doing when you're not playing football or in the gym?
I like to read from time to time. I think a lot of good knowledge comes from reading, so I try my best to do that whenever I have some free time. I also have an older brother and a younger brother, and they love to play video games, so from time to time I'll hop on and play with them whenever I can.
I love watching film. Just whenever I'm not playing football, I like to watch football just to get better every day, so that's what I like to do in my free time for sure.
What is the biggest thing you're working on as we approach the draft?
All the different testing that they have. We need to do the 40-yard dash, the 5-10-5, and the L drill.
There are a lot of things that come into play. It's not necessarily just getting faster but becoming more efficient with your movements. Learning the techniques and drilling down on how to become more efficient with my movements in order to get better times. Over the past couple of months, I've been working on that and trying to get the best possible times that I can get.
Working on my technique at D-line, working on watching a lot of film, watching lots of film on NFL players, and just seeing how the speed of the game is at the next level, and just trying to continue to get better in that aspect. I'm always finding something to get better at.
What is one thing you want NFL coaches and GMs to know about you that they aren't going to get from just watching the tape?
I want them to know that I'm willing to do whatever I can to have an impact on the team. It doesn't matter what role that is.
I'm a very selfless person, but I'm mean on the field, and I'm nice off the field. The leadership that comes with that, the intangibles that the Naval Academy gives you, is something that not a lot of players have. The experience that you have coming from the Naval Academy and playing in a grimy system. Playing against a triple option teaches you a lot about yourself as a player.
I want to tell them that no matter what, it doesn't matter how big I am. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be a good player. The work ethic I put in every single day to whatever role I'm in. I'm going to be the best I can at it.
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