Last offseason, the Vikings dumped a 26-year-old pass rusher coming off his best season and somehow got better.
I thought the Vikings had made a mistake a year ago in how they had treated Ray Edwards. Now I’m not so sure, and it doesn’t have anything to do with how he has fared in Atlanta.
The reason I’ve changed my mind is because of the play of Brian Robison, Edwards’ replacement,who was handed the starting job and a contract extension last March. In his first season starting, Robison not only outplayed Edwards, but also much of the league, ranking inside the Top 20 for 4-3 DEs and playing nearly 1,000 snaps. That’s not a bad breakout.
The Edwards Evolution
Back when the Vikings were under the stewardship of the ‘Triangle of Authority’, the name given to the three-man front office structure under which they operated without any General Manager in place, they seemed to be making a point each year of drafting one of the youngest players available. Edwards, Sidney Rice, Letroy Guion and Percy Harvin were all just 20-year-olds when draft day rolled around and were selected by Minnesota on consecutive years. They seemed to be taking a shot on at least one very young player a season and Edwards was the first in that trend when he was drafted back in 2006.
Minnesota had been trying to find pass rushers for years, and Edwards saw significant playing time right away. The Vikings hadn't yet traded with Kansas City for Jared Allen, but once they did, everybody’s job on the line got easier. Edwards steadily developed, to the point that in 2010 he was our eighth-ranked 4-3 DE, ahead of players like Justin Tuck, Jason Babin, Cliff Avril, and even his far more celebrated teammate, Allen. He may not have had eye-watering sack numbers, but Edwards played the run very well, and only five players notched more than the 67 total pressures he managed that season (Allen was not one of them, as he “only” managed 65). While Edwards undoubtedly drew an easier assignment on an every-down basis given the attention put on Allen and the rest of that defensive line, he was making the most of his opportunities, and at just 26-years-old, was only entering his prime as a pass rusher.
The Vikings had gone through the tough years of developing such a young and raw prospect, and were finally seeing dividends, losing him at this point seemed foolish. For whatever reason, they had taken the stance early in the process to get a cheap season out of Edwards in 2009 and then, if necessary, allow him to walk in free agency, rather than lock him down earlier, before relations between the two parties broke down. I thought that was a mistake, and one they would live to regret.
Robison’s Opportunity
Instead of getting into a bidding war over Edwards, the Vikings chose to invest in Brian Robison, his backup. Robison was drafted a year later than Edwards, in the 2007 draft, but is actually a year older, and had been seen by some as merely a situational pass rusher before this past season. Minnesota handed him a three-year $14.1 million contract and allowed Edwards to seek his fortune elsewhere.
Robison may have been the most athletic pass rusher in his draft class, and put up some impressive numbers at the combine, beating those of first-round pick Gaines Adams in most tests. He is a top-caliber shot putter as well, and yet wasn’t drafted until the fourth round. Before 2011, despite a few starts to his name, he was used mostly as a situational rusher in the Vikings’ sub packages.
Last year, Robison ended up playing 936 snaps on defense as he started opposite Allen, more than all but eight other 4-3 defensive ends (Jared Allen, who had to be practically hog-tied and dragged off, led the league with 1044). He wasn’t just taking up space on those snaps either, bringing pressure consistently over the season and holding up against the run, something that had been a concern among his detractors before the season. In 385 snaps run defending, Robison missed just a pair of tackles, posted very similar numbers to Allen, and earned a positive PFF grade over the season, despite the Vikings' defense feeling the loss of Pat Williams in the interior.
As a pass rusher, he recorded nine sacks, but 54 total pressures, good for 11th among 4-3 defensive ends, and his 8.4 Pass Rushing Productivity score was good enough to rank 21st, one spot better than Jason Pierre-Paul, and comfortably ahead of the player he replaced.
Only five 4-3 defensive ends rushed the passer more than Robison did last year (Pierre-Paul was one of them, which certainly affected his PRP score), and to be able to exert that amount of pressure on a consistent basis in your first season as an every-down player is no mean feat. Robison answered the questions about his game in emphatic terms, and if he does nothing more than repeat that performance in 2012 and beyond, the Vikings have made out like bandits with the contract they handed him. If, however, he can actually continue to develop and improve in his second season as a starter, they have ended up with one of the best deals around.
Sometimes you won’t understand a personnel move and sometimes you’ll trash it, but sometimes it turns out that NFL teams might just know what they’re doing after all. This is one of those occasions.
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