Vikings

What Are the Vikings Getting In Cam Robinson?

Photo Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

With Christian Darrisaw out for the season due to a knee injury, Minnesota Vikings’ GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah felt it was necessary to make a move to bolster the LT position, trading with the Jacksonville Jaguars to acquire long-time starting LT Cam Robinson:

What did they pay?

Regarding draft capital, the base of the deal is that the Vikings sent a fifth-round pick from 2026 to the Jaguars for a seventh-round pick from 2026 in return. According to Tom Pelissero, play-time conditions can upgrade the fifth-round pick to a fourth-round pick and take away the seventh-round pick that the Vikings are receiving back:

The play time incentive in the trade gives the Vikings options. Considering the relative value of the LT position, a fifth-for-seventh swap is low risk if Robinson works out poorly or the Vikings end up falling apart before the end of the year. They can bench Robinson and likely avoid the upgrade to a fourth-round pick. If Robinson plays well and the Vikings keep winning, I don’t think many people are complaining about the lack of a fourth-round pick two years out.

It’s also worth noting that the Vikings will likely get a 2026 compensatory pick for Robinson leaving in free agency because starting tackles are highly coveted. Robinson will likely clear the $7.5 million a year it took for Geno Stone to warrant a fifth-round comp pick this last season. Therefore, if the Vikings are willing to be patient in free agency this year, they can easily get the pick they sent back. A solid asset is more valuable than a compensatory pick, so the Jaguars made the trade. Still, the Vikings set themselves up with easy avenues to recoup value if the on-field play from Robinson doesn’t pay off.

According to my calculations, Robinson is owed about $9.1 million in salary and per-game roster bonuses. The Vikings taking on some of that money would mean they probably had to pay less in draft compensation. However, it remains to be seen how the rest of that salary has been divided. With just $9.4 million in cap space remaining this year, Minnesota will likely have to dip into their $75 million in cap space for next season to operate for the rest of the year. Even if they have to, it won’t make that big of a dent.

who is cam robinson?

Robinson has been a quality starter for Jacksonville since they drafted him in the first round in 2017. However, he may never have reached the heights that his three-year, $54 million contract promised after they franchise-tagged him in 2021. Robinson has also had his share of injuries, playing every game in just one season, 2020. He also left the Jaguars’ Week 7 game with a concussion.

As scary as head injuries are for NFL players long-term, Robinson cleared concussion protocol but did not play in Week 8. Still, his injury history is not a major consideration. He’s a free agent after this season, and the Vikings only need him to fill in for 10 games.

With Darrisaw out until next year, they need someone who can come close to filling his shoes. Robinson certainly does that from a size standpoint. The Jags list him at 6’6″, 335 lbs. with 35 1/2″ arms to lock down opposing edge rushers. Looking at his PFF page, he’s graded in the 70s in each of the past four seasons, which suggests he’s a good, not great, player. Robinson often has a pass-blocking efficiency of around 97, which hovers somewhere from 25th to 35th of 70-odd qualifying offensive tackles. For reference, Brian O’Neill is 14th among tackles this year at 97.8, and Darrisaw was 27th with a 97.1 pass-blocking efficiency.

what does replacing darrisaw mean?

A player of Darrisaw’s caliber will be impossible to replace in the middle of the season. The question for the Vikings is not whether Robinson can be as good as Darrisaw, which is too much to ask. Instead, it’s can he perform Darrisaw’s assignments at an acceptable level of play?

The Vikings ask a lot of their premier LT. They are comfortable leaving him on an island. On passing plays, Darrisaw will often be split with more width than the rest of the line and asked to cover a ton of ground against wide rushes.

Look at the below play against the Packers and note Darrisaw’s alignment pre-snap. His inside foot is much further from Blake Brandel when compared to O’Neill and Ed Ingram. After the snap, Darrisaw gets out wide and has nearly the entire space between the hashes to cover as a blocker. Eventually, it resolves in a stunt, and Darrisaw, Brandel, and Bradbury pass it off well.

The Vikings were comfortable leaving Darrisaw on an island for most of the game, like they did in Week 1, where he dominated Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Blocking for the Vikings is a lot different than blocking for other teams. According to PFF, Sam Darnold spends the second-most amount of time in the pocket, at 3.14 seconds, in the NFL. That’s because of Minnesota’s robust deep-passing attack, which has Darnold averaging 9.2 air yards/attempt, third in the NFL per Next Gen Stats. Robinson must be able to hold up longer than he was asked to in Jacksonville. Trevor Lawrence only averages 2.61 seconds in the pocket, the seventh-shortest in the NFL.

Robinson will also need to handle Minnesota’s robust run game. While the Vikings are still a zone-heavy team, they’ve mixed in a bunch of duo and other gap concepts to great success. On one hand, Darrisaw can generate displacement on defenders with ease in the run game, like on this combo block against Nick Bosa:

On the other, he has the athleticism to reach quicker defenders on plays like outside zone, on this play against Thibodeaux:

The Vikings probably won’t ask Robinson to do all of the above, but if Robinson can do most of it, it will help the offense. Let’s look at the tape to see how Robinson can replace Darrisaw.

what does the tape say?

As mentioned above, the Jags’ offense was a lot different from what the Vikings run. Most of the throws the Jags made were quick game with one- to three-step drops. Still, Robinson won those plays initially, like on this rep against Danielle Hunter.

Robinson consistently showed the power to stall opposing bull rushers. In the play below against Will Anderson, he anchors within two steps and stops the rush before it gets into Lawrence’s lap. Lawrence has to move on the play, but it’s due to the run by Hunter, not Anderson.

When Robinson gets his hands on defenders, he has dominant strength. On this play action, he jump sets Anderson and completely shuts him down:

Passing off stunts requires significant chemistry between linemen, but Robinson has the bones of doing well against stunts. In this rep below, he defends the initial threat, then quickly finds the inside stunter to put him in the dirt.

Even when the Jags allowed a pressure, it was on old friend Ezra Cleveland. You can see in the play below that the edge quickly runs inside. Robinson kept a good level, even with the C, and rode the crasher until he could turn and stonewall the looper. However, Cleveland was too far forward in his pass set and got knocked over by the crasher, leading to pressure.

Robinson looks dominant in the run game. He has the physicality to displace defenders and can easily find LBs at the second level. Here, he combos on the 3t before climbing to Henry To’oTo’o. This is an impressive rep to knock the LB out of the picture.

You regularly see great push from Robinson, including this movement on a DT.

I also thought his movement skills were a plus in the run game, especially for a guy his size. Here, he steps up easily to the second level and targets an LB. He struggles a little to sustain the block, but if other players had performed well, this would have resulted in a five-plus-yard gain. That’s all you can ask for from Robinson.

Finally, he showed the ability to reach defenders effectively, something he will need to do in Minnesota’s zone scheme. Below, he has an incredible block against Jerry Hughes, just planting him in the ground:

There are concerns about some of his pass-blocking reps. First was the leverage Robinson plays with. His size typically gives him the strength to overpower opponents, but he can sometimes get sloppy and lose too much ground, like on this rep against Anderson. He is too high, cannot get his feet set, and gets pushed into where Lawrence is trying to set up in the pocket.

Lawrence makes a quick move to his left to negate the pressure, but this could have disrupted a throw:

I also wanted to include a time when Robinson got beat around the edge, not getting enough width in his set to push the rusher past the pocket. This was an irregular occurrence, but it was obviously a loss on this play. Lawrence dropped to about 11 yards, which is too far, but Darnold will sometimes do that, and the Vikings take a lot of deeper drops.

If losses like this show up more often for Robinson on the Vikings, it’s because the Jaguars protected Robinson with quick game.

In my opinion, the bigger danger for Robinson is the oversets he sometimes has. This can happen in quick game where the QB has to hold on to the ball for a beat longer than he thought he would, but a loss to the inside because Robinson got beat to wide occurs on the play below. It leads to Lawrence getting hit low:

Transitional quickness to the inside may be a concern. On this play, the rusher dives inside against Robinson. You’d like to see Robinson transition and push the rusher to the right of the QB, now Mac Jones, so he can bail to his left. Instead, he can’t get inside quick enough and Jones gets belted for a strip sack. With Robinson being a bigger guy, he may be limited in his ability to recover in these situations.

Conclusion

Considering Christian Darrisaw went down with an injury less than a week ago, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did a fantastic job replacing him with a quality starting LT in Cam Robinson. Robinson has played a ton of football throughout his career, mostly at a solid but not elite level.

Robinson comes with a high salary cost but a low draft pick cost for just a fifth-seventh swap in 2026. If the Vikings have to give up more due to a playing time incentive, they also built in a way to recoup value. Robinson can earn them a compensatory pick after leaving in free agency this offseason.

As a player, Robinson has physical attributes that seem to mirror Darrisaw. Regarding what he can be asked to do, he has experience being left on an island, but it’s mostly during quick game throws. Robinson shows a strong anchor and great displacement in the run game. He’s a consistent pass-setter with great size and strength but a few inconsistencies. His large frame sometimes prevents him from playing with great pad level, and he probably lacks some transitional quickness to stop inside moves.

It’s likely that the Vikings will have to run more quick game in response to losing Darrisaw, but they won’t have to eliminate their deep play-action game because Robinson can hold up well enough. In the run game, the Vikings can continue to run what they have all year, and I think Robinson will perform similarly to Darrisaw.

It’s not likely Robinson will live up to Darrisaw’s standard, but he appears to be a quality starting player. He allows the players lower on the depth chart to keep their roles rather than straining Minnesota’s overall depth, which is a fantastic way for the Vikings to replace their superstar LT with the trade deadline fast approaching.

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