It didn't take the Minnesota Vikings long to bring in a replacement for left tackle Christian Darrisaw when they traded for Cam Robinson just five days after he suffered a season-ending injury.
It didn't cost the Vikings much, as it will either be a fifth-round pick with a seventh round pick coming back or just a fourth-round pick going to Jacksonville depending on how much playing time Robinson gets.
On Thursday, Robinson made his practice debut with the Vikings and spoke to reporters for the first time.
"Just kind of get out and get my feet well with the guys, get used to the new verbiage, get used to just my new teammate. So it was a good one."
Robinson was spotted working with the ones during the open portion of practice to the media. It wouldn't be too much of a shock to see him play on Sunday night, especially since tackle is a relatively easy position to pick up in comparison to others when you come in midseason. That was something that head coach Kevin O'Connell discussed during his Wednesday press conference.
"I think first and foremost, we'll need to find similarities system that he ran. Hey, it's the exact same thing here. Maybe just learning the words. And we've got great communicators up there on the offensive line, from Garrett on out, can help him. And really, when you get into it in certain phases of your offense, first and second down, there might be some nuances to the run game or play action protections here and there, but the tackle spot is one where on those, those waiting downs and drop back pass and those things, you're blocking the defensive end. And whether we say peaches or whatever it is, really doesn't matter. So I think veteran players played, you know, over 890 starts in his career. That guy's played a lot of football, and I think it was playing really well. You know, when we at the time of acquiring him, and I know he's healthy and we'll be ready to roll. So like I said, you know, haven't gotten a chance to physically see him yet, but he'll be here momentarily, and we'll roll from there. Not something that other positions we haven't accomplished before. So expect, expecting to get ready to go. We'll see where he's at this weekend."
Robinson is now in quite a different situation with the Vikings, going from a 2-6 Jacksonville Jaguars team to a 5-2 Vikings team that feels they can compete for a potential Super Bowl.
"It's a great opportunity. Just, you know, leaving the situation I was in, just being able to for my next situation, to be one like this. It's great."
