Amik Robertson Shares Blunt Truth About His Vegas Stint

The Las Vegas Raiders are a unique franchise for more than one reason. Along with the organization's storied history, playing in a city like Las Vegas poses challenges for players that few, if any, other cities in America poses.

Robertson's Truth

The Raiders drafted cornerback Amik Robertson in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft. However, immediately upon being drafted, the Raiders' coaching staff switched Robertson to Nickelback, a position, leading to Robertson struggling initially.

“I come in, I get drafted [by the Raiders,] everybody loves me. Then they move me to Nickel. Never played that in my life. That s— was like Chinese. They just threw me in the water to play Nickel. I didn’t even understand Nickel. I didn’t perform. Now everybody like, they turning their back on me. And it’s like, then we didn’t have OTAs. We didn’t have because of COVID, we didn’t have none of that," Robertson said, on the St. Brown podcast.

“So I had to learn from the iPad. It’s different when you’re looking rather than really doing it. And when I got out there, them bullets was flying. I just couldn’t handle it, and two years straight, I was in an island, I was in a bad place and that’s what forced me to go out a lot.”

Robertson appeared in eight games his rookie season, logging four total tackles. He appeared in 10 games his second season in the league, registering 19 tackles, before appearing in all 17 games the next two consecutive seasons. Robertson noted how his first two years in the league impacted him.

“Before, I was like, partying, I’m going to be honest, I was doing that my first two years. I was doing that a lot. But it’s the reason why I was doing that, too. I don’t want to go in too deep. Vegas was tough," Robertson said about his time with the Raiders.

“When you don’t feel accepted, when you just got high school, middle school, and college, and everybody loved you. But then, when you get to the league and they start to love you a little bit, people start turning their backs on you.

“It’s like going to the clubs, around all these people, I feel love. So that’s why I was just going out every night. But eventually, I ended up finding myself again and realized, ‘No, that’s not me.’ I had to get back to my roots.”