Exclusive: Rutgers DB Robert Longerbeam outlines his journey to becoming 2025 NFL Draft prospect

Robert Longerbeam spent all five years of his college football career with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. After arriving at the program to play receiver, he moved to the other side of the line of scrimmage and proved to be an excellent defensive back by defending 37 passes and intercepting five of them. His skillset has made him a prospect to keep an eye on as the 2025 NFL Draft approaches.

He recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda's Tony Pauline and Adam Hulse to discuss his journey to a prospective NFL career. Longerbeam shared that he was lightly recruited coming out of high school.

"I didn't really have a lot of guys recruiting me," Longerbeam said. "I committed early to coach Fran Brown when he was at Temple and throughout the process I just really wanted to play for him. So when he switched over and got hired at Rutgers, I followed him there.

"My local HBCU's wanted me to come for track, but I didn't want to focus on track ... I came in as a receiver, and then once we had some injuries in our secondary, they moved me over because they always wanted to play DB."

He passed on the opportunity to participate in college track and field and also overcame initially being a wide receiver at Rutgers, to eventually become a draft prospect at defensive back. His athleticism could be valuable to NFL teams as he also outlined his versatile contributions along the way.

"My first job with our defense, we were more of a zone base defense, so it was more discipline stuff," Longerbeam said. "Then we were in press quarters, so it was man-to-man on the island, it was really you versus whoever you guarded, so you really had to lock in and dominate that matchup. ... I like playing press-man is my favorite, but then I like playing off-man too. ... I was also a gunner (on special teams) for a couple of years."

Longerbeam's versatility on defense and special teams, track and field background and experience as a former receiver and returner should help his overall outlook ahead of the draft. He can improve that further during the upcoming NFL Combine.

Robert Longerbeam earned an invite to the 2025 NFL Combine

Robert Longerbeam (image credit: IMAGN)

Robert Longerbeam has improved his draft stock and has been getting the attention of many NFL scouts. His excellent career with Rutgers earned him a trip to the Shrine Bowl, which resulted in him being invited to the 2025 NFL Combine. He discussed this process during his exclusive interview with Sportskeeda.

"(The Shrine Bowl) was amazing," Longerbeam said. "It was a lot of talented guys out there, and I went out there with them and wanted to prove I could cover them. I felt like I did that, so it was a very fun experience.

"It was so fulfilling, like you dream about this type of stuff as a kid, so I knew the Shine Bowl was going to be my opportunity to earn the invite if I performed well. It was extra motivation going into it, wanting to prove myself, so then to get that Combine invite was really fulfilling."

He has already accomplished many of his goals as he continues to improve his stock for the 2025 NFL Draft. He is hoping to make it on a roster next season like his favorite cornerback and former Rutgers teammate Max Melton.

Longerbeam closed by saying he just wants to "bring value" to a team next year, and given his overall profile, he appears to have a great chance of doing exactly that.