Darius Robinson was meeting with the media in the visitors locker room in Tampa Bay when the defensive lineman went transparent.
"We've only won 3 games since September," the second-year defensive lineman said. "That's terrible. That starts with myself. I'm not who I thought I was."
It wasn't just what he said but how he said it, perhaps not surprising after the Cardinals had lost another close game. But he did note that day he was going to get back to work, and Wednesday after practice, Robinson wore a giant smile while talking about how surprised he was at the reaction to his comments.
"People thought I wasn't confident," Robinson said. "I'm confident. It's just that what you expected (this season) and what you've got are two different things. At the end of the day, I control my effort, my intentionality and all that good stuff. That's what makes me excited to keep getting better. At Missouri I faced way tougher adversity than this as far as football, so I know what I need to do."
Coach Jonathan Gannon, who said he hadn't heard Robinson's postgame comments, only sees a player trending up.
"To me, his last month of football -- so in my mind, four games -- is the best he's played here," Gannon said of the 2024 first-round pick. "(The comments) are him probably being a good guy, a good teammate and again, like everybody in there, taking the arrow in the forehead. I think he's playing extremely well right now."
Robinson is still working on making more impact plays. The Cardinals have gotten some of those from their 2025 first-round defensive lineman, Walter Nolen III, although Nolen is out right now with a knee injury.
Robinson agrees with Gannon, however. He is playing better.
"I don't want people to think I'm not confident," Robinson said. "It's just the way you envision yourself and how you expected the season to go, and if it doesn't match the results, then you will be frustrated. I think that's all it is. But at the same time I have definitely grown from the beginning of the season to now and I still have five more weeks to keep growing."
