On Wednesday night, the Indianapolis Colts announced that they had agreed to terms with cornerback Patrick Robinson on a contract, adding a key piece to the Indianapolis secondary.
Robinson signed with the Colts a day after reportedly being near an agreement with the Dallas Cowboys, but the cornerback said that he was sold on the Colts quite quickly - from his initial conversation with Chuck Pagano. On Tuesday, Robinson had lunch with Pagano in Boca Raton, Florida at the site of the owners meetings, and it was during that conversation that he decided he wanted to sign.
"I talked with Chuck (Pagano) yesterday," Robinson told members of the media on Wednesday night. "I had lunch with him actually. We had a great conversation and to be honest, I was sold halfway through the conversation. I already knew that I wanted to be a Colt."
After his lunch meeting with Pagano on Tuesday, Robinson then flew into Indianapolis on Tuesday night, met with the Colts all day on Wednesday, and then signed a deal.
"The conversation that we had was deep," Robinson said of his meeting with Pagano. "I felt how genuine he was with the things he was saying. I just had a gut feeling, and I just went with it."
He added more on that later, saying that, "We had the conversation. Sometimes you get that feeling that the guy that you're talking to, he's telling the truth. Sometimes you get that feeling and I got that feeling."
The idea of Chuck Pagano selling a free agent on the Colts is nothing new, as he has developed a reputation as a coach that players want to play for and the Colts have developed a reputation as being good closers, capable of closing on a deal when a player is in town for a visit and not letting him leave. A large part of that is certainly the influence of Pagano, who has been a big draw for free agents in recent years and was again a big draw for Patrick Robinson.
It wasn't solely Pagano, however - Robinson knows the Colts are a good team that can compete, which helped him make his decision.
"Well, I thought the Colts were a good team, they just had a down year last year," Robinson said. "They went 8-8, I believe, but I always thought they had a good team. I always thought those guys were a good team and that made a difference in why I came here. That was part of the difference between the other teams."