Moore: It's now or never for Arizona State's Merlin Robertson to conjure NFL magic

Time for Merlin to conjure up a career in the NFL.

It’s now or never for Arizona State’s fifth-year senior linebacker, and it looks like he’s ready for the pressure.

“Everybody’s journey is different,” Merlin Robertson said. “Just learning how to keep my head down and be humble and work hard … striving to be a professional.”

Robertson has been locked in for months, getting ready for the opportunity that the 2022 season presents. He’s lost the baby fat and bad weight that came with him to Tempe from his hometown of Gardena, California. He’s overcome his quiet nature to speak up enough that he was selected as a team captain. And he was named to the Butuks Award watchlist, along with the nation’s best linebackers.

ASU coach Herm Edwards recognizes Merlin’s hocus-focus.

“His body’s changed. His whole mannerisms (have changed). He’s grown up,” Edwards said.

“It’s like, OK, he made a business decision to come back: ‘I want to play better, so I can (maybe) be drafted.’ ... So, you see that in him, and the players respect him.”

'I wasn't really satisfied'

Maybe it’s because he’s been watching his friend and former teammate Darien Butler in training camp with the Las Vegas Raiders? Maybe it’s because the difference between the first linebacker taken in the draft and an undrafted rookie free agent is about $11 million? Maybe he’s just maturing as a young man should?

“(It was really) just me sitting with my family, thinking about the possibilities that can happen,” Robertson said. “I wasn’t really satisfied with what I did last year, so I decided ‘why not?’ Just give it another shot, put my head down and keep on working and see where it goes from there.”

Robertson’s ASU career has been filled with highs and lows. He was picked as the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week after just his second game. Later that season, he was selected as the Pac-12 freshman defensive player of the year.

Then Merlin’s magical ride stopped.

He missed the opportunity to showcase his talent in the Las Vegas Bowl after his rookie season, dealing with a family emergency back home. A year later, Robertson’s father died, just days after attending ASU football practice. Then the pandemic hit, ruining what many observers thought should have been Robertson’s last days on campus.

ASU players didn’t know who they would be facing or when. The program was leveled by allegations of NCAA recruiting violations. And one after another, players and coaches left Tempe.

Robertson stayed, got married, graduated, rehabbed all the little nagging things that slow a player’s development, and this season, he’ll rally his teammates around the Pat Tillman statue in the north end zone of Sun Devil Stadium and lead them out onto the field as a captain, an honor that brings respect and responsibility in equal measure.

The recognition was overwhelming.

“I was excited,” Robertson said. “I really didn’t know how to feel, honestly. I couldn’t thank Coach Herm enough for trusting me to represent this university ... I was just honored and blessed.”

'Let's get it ... let's go to work'

Maybe he should have come out early, as Butler did, especially since Robertson was once called the “Batman” to Butler’s “Robin”? Maybe he should have been more disruptive, given statistics that show him to be one of the sturdiest tacklers in big-time college football? Maybe he should have gotten into shape earlier with all the NFL money and opportunity available?

Perhaps. But then he wouldn’t have another year under linebackers coach Chris Claiborne, who already has been down the path that Robertson is walking. Claiborne won the Butkus Award (USC, 1998) and had an eight-year career in the NFL.

“Knowing where I came from,” Claiborne said, “anything less than that, I ain’t gonna be happy with.”

“I’m excited for the kid, he came back … I told him: ‘Let’s get it. You graduated. Let’s go to work. You prepare yourself every day to be the NFL guy you want to be.’”

The expectations are clear. Robertson needs more sacks, more interceptions, more impact on special teams. More proof that it won’t go *poof*.

Special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum has watched Robertson’s development, and he has plenty to compare it to. Slocum coached Claiborne in college as well as Patrick Willis (Butkus Award, Mississippi, 2006) and Dat Nguyen (Lombardi Award, Texas A&M, 1998). 

“What I’ve seen over his time here,” Slocum said of Robertson, “is his devotion to the game, and his devotion to making his body the best it can be, and his devotion to being the student of the game.”

He knows what Robertson will have to do to get his name etched on trophies that mark him among the best of the best.

“When you start comparing the top players, basically in the history of college football, that have moved on to be pros, we’re talking rare air,” Slocum said. “At some point, he’ll have to demonstrate the ability to (put himself in that class). I think he’s put himself in the best position that he could in the way he’s approached the game, especially in the latter part of his college career.”

Nothing left for Merlin to do but conjure himself a job in the NFL.

It’s now or never, and it starts Thursday night at Sun Devil Stadium against Northern Arizona University.

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @SayingMoore.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Moore: Arizona State's Merlin Robertson has to make magic to reach NFL