Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press

Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press

When the Los Angeles Rams demoted Greg Robinson and shipped him out of town this spring, reports emerged that Robinson didn’t take football as serious as some of his other pursuits in life.

But in the two months since the Detroit Lions acquired Robinson for a 2018 draft pick, offensive line coach Ron Prince said the team’s presumptive Week 1 starter at left tackle has done nothing but work to get himself better as a player and student.

“Greg has an infectious personality,” Prince said this week. “He’s positive, he’s happy, he’s pleasant. He’s excited every day to be here. Big smile on his face. He’s been an absolute joy in the room. I don’t see anything like that. The guy likes to train. You just look at his body, he likes to train and lift weights and do all the stuff that linemen need to do. He’s been getting himself into the kind of condition that we require our linemen to be in to kind of do some of the things we do offensively. I haven’t experienced that.”

Three weeks of preseason football is hardly enough to judge, but the Lions are hopeful that a change of scenery was all Robinson needed to make the most of his prodigious talents.

The second overall pick of the 2014 draft, Robinson was an utter disappointment with the Rams in St. Louis, where his inconsistent play made him persona non grata on a team that was starting over with a new coach and new left tackle this fall.

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The Lions traded for Robinson on the final day of their off-season program in June, and as they get ready for Saturday's exhibition tilt with the New York Jets, Robinson has looked, surprising to say, like a capable fill-in for Taylor Decker.

“He’s doing a nice job,” Prince said. “And he has adapted very well to what we do technique wise, and frankly probably more quickly than anybody we’ve ever had here. A rookie coming in, he’s way faster than that. Veterans that have come in from other places, way faster than that. So still got work to do, but he’s adapted well to a change of style of pass protection.”

Prince stopped short of naming Robinson the Lions’ starting left tackle while Decker is recovering from shoulder surgery that’s expected to keep him out until around mid-season.

Cyrus Kouandjio also has taken first-team reps at the position this summer, and Corey Robinson, last year’s swing tackle, could be in the mix once he returns from foot surgery.

Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press

But one Hall of Fame lineman who’s watched Robinson closely over his career said he believes the Auburn product will thrive under Prince’s tutelage with the Lions.

“I watched Greg Robinson quite closely and what I saw was a guy who was expected to do things that he simply was not informed about,” said former Rams offensive lineman Jackie Slater, now the offensive line coach at Azusa Pacific and an analyst with Fox-11 in Los Angeles. “I finally got to meet Greg and talk with him and visit with him and I found him to be an articulate, bright young man who just didn’t have a lot of answers. I believe he’s getting answers now. I’ve had a couple conversations with him, but I believe that Ron Prince is giving him the answers that he needs. And some of what I’ve seen has not been what I saw here.”

Slater said Robinson, whose struggles with the Rams were most pronounced in pass protection, had trouble transitioning “from the set mode of operation to the transition mode of operation.”

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One of the most athletic linemen in the NFL, it was those technical issues that led to Robinson’s inconsistent play.

“As far as talents are concerned, you won’t find a better talent and now what you’re seeing is a guy who is becoming an educated talent, so I have nothing but great expectations for him,” Slater said. “I think he’s going to eventually be a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro player. I think it’s just a matter of time, and I also think that he’s going to be a very difficult decision for the Detroit Lions over the next year or so. I mean, this guy right here is an unbelievable talent that comes along once every decade or so, and he’s the type of guy that’s growing, that’s desperately wanting to get better. All the stars are lining up for him.”

Robinson, who will be a free agent at season’s end, attributed some of his early struggles with the Rams to “moving parts,” including playing with multiple quarterbacks and left guards.

With the Lions, Robinson has been forthright about his learning curve and some of the hiccups he’s had in camp, but he played well in joint practices against the Colts last week and held his own against pass rushers like Jabaal Sheard and Akeem Ayers in the game.

Against the Jets on Saturday night, he’ll face another stern test against Leonard Williams and Jordan Jenkins.

“Sometimes players leave a team and go to another team and it’s just for whatever reason, a fresh start, maybe they learn from what happened, maybe it just was a bad fit, I don’t know,” Prince said. “I couldn’t tell you, but the guys in the room love him. he’s engaged, he studies, he trains. We’re really glad to have him.”

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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