If you’re going to be a late bloomer in a pro sport, it helps if you can bloom quickly. And that’s exactly where we find Jevoni Robinson.
The Tiger-Cats’ rookie tight end may be 31 years old but he’s a virtual novice when it comes to the gridiron.
He’s played in 12 games for the Ticats, which is more than all the previous football games he’s appeared in at all levels in his life….added up.
“I even got cut from my high school football team,” says the 6-foot-8 native of Jamaica, who spent his two final high school years in Charlotte, North Carolina and ended up playing basketball at North Carolina State, Barry College and professionally in Italy.
According to the CFL, he’s the only player in the CFL whose team lists him as a true tight end…a player who can line up to block from a three-point stance or standing up, and also runs a variety of pass routes and is a bona fide threat to catch the ball.
Not even his head coach knew the current rarity of the “true tight end” label but Scott Milanovich has been committed to integrating tight ends into the Hamilton offence, even while he was still a coaching consultant last season.
“There’s value in it, to me,” Milanovich was saying today. “Almost everybody in the league will use a tight end but it’s an extra lineman Obviously they’re not a big threat in the passing game. Obvioulsy, teams will try to release them and try to keep the defence honest. But defences know that they’re not really a threat.
“There are some things we are able to do, having a tight end who is a factor, in the passing game and can make plays, and also block that gives us some things that we can do that others can’t, without one.”
Milanovich and receivers coach Naaman Roosevelt, as well as offensive line coach Mike Gibson—tight ends have to block like a guard or tackle when they’re closely adjacent to the rest of the line, not split from them—have patiently developed Robinson, step by step and he’s grown into a more integral part of the offence.
Robinson has 15 receptions for a couple of touchdowns this year. Nearly half (six) of those catches have come in the past two games including four important grabs and a touchdown reception in Friday’s season-saving victory in Toronto.
On one of his receptions, he showed his basketball pedigree by leaping completely over Argo cornerback Benjie Franklin who tried to submarine him.
“Basketball is all about positioning and going up for rebounds and it helps with football as well,” says Robinson, who has worked his way into the set of receivers Bo Levi Mitchell—and Milanovich, who calls the plays—entrust with you-go-beat-that-guy plays like jump balls. “Quick feet and great hands help you make a play when it comes your way. Coaches say all the time, ‘make a play, make a play.’”
He made one in practice today, shooting up like an express elevator for a high Bo Mitchell pass in the jump-ball drill that has been increasingly common during Ticat workouts.
Robinson is a Global player, taken by the BC Lions in the 2023 draft, which of course gives him a lot of motivation heading into Friday’s game against the Lions in Vancouver. It also gives the Ticats a lot of roster-ratio flexibility in their receiving corps.
When Robinson got a look with the Houston Texans and played in some NFL pre-season games in 2017 before being released because of a sports-hernia injury. He was briefly with the San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football in 2019, played in the Spring League in 2021, catching three passes, got five days in the 2023 XFL, before being drafted by the Lions later that year. He was on the practice roster all season, then signed with Hamilton in January.
So, no, he has not played a lot of football.
But he works with a personal coach in the off-season to build up his blocking and receiving skills, and emerged from a handful of tight ends the Ticats auditioned in training camp and put his nose to the learning curve grindstone.
“He’s the most improved player I’ve seen in all my years of coaching,” Milanovich said today. “From training camp to now. He continues to get better.
“He’s still a work in progress. There are things every week that he does that he shouldn’t. But he learns, he’s very coachable, he loves the game. He loves being part of this team, loves playing football and he’s infectious. When he catches a pass you should see the big smile on his face. It’s funny, actually.
“He’s just getting better and he’s earned more trust, from me probably, and more trust from the quarterbacks. He’s going to get a bit bigger role as he continues to produce.”
Robinson recalls that when he arrived with the Ticats, the coaches told him they wanted him to “get his hands in the dirt,” which he says he was already doing as part of his transition to the gridiron from the hardwood.
“I’m definitely getting assimilated to the offence,” he said. “The coaches do a great job of putting me in positions to be successful. Guys like Tim (White) Shemar (Bridges), (Steven) Dunbar, Kiondré (Smith), they make plays all the time. I just have to be patient and wait for my time to come and when it comes, try to make the plays.
“I spend a lot of time with coach Gibby in the offensive line room. Seeing guys like (David) Beard and (Coulter) Woodmansey and Rev (Brandon Revenberg), makes me a better blocker as well.
“This is the most football I’ve played in my career. So looking back, it’s kind of surreal. “
CATS CLAUSES: Ticat place-kicker Marc Liegghio was the only Hamilton player named to this week’s CFL Honour Roll. He was named top kicker for his game-winning field goal –as well as five other treys–on the final play Friday night in Toronto … Bo Levi Mitchell leads the CFL by nearly 700 yards in passing with 4044. He has also thrown five more touchdown passes (with 24) than No. 2 McLeod Bethel-Thompson … the Ticats’ improved defence will face two of the top 5 receivers in the league in B.C. Justin McInnis is No. 1 at 1169 yards and also leads in TDs with 7. Alexander Hollins is fifth in yardage at 881 … Ticats’ Shemar Bridges, who set the franchise record for single-season receptions for a first-year player, and now has 79, is just 10 short of the CFL record in the same category. He ranks fourth in overall receiving with 906 yards … Tim White is one behind McInnis in receiving TDs at 6, while Kiondré Smith has 5 and Bridges 4. Bridges is tied with Ottawa’s Justin Hardy, being targeted 115 times.
