Cam Robinson delivers game-ball performance after 2 practices with Vikings

After the Minnesota Vikings acquired Cam Robinson in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars last week, the former Alabama All-American practiced on Thursday and Friday, then played all 73 offensive snaps of a 21-13 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night at left tackle.

"For me, it doesn't get any better than this," Robinson said after the game.

Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell presented Robinson with a game ball after Minnesota ended its two-game losing streak to reach 6-2 in the 2024 NFL season.

"For anybody who's ever played played left tackle in the NFL," O'Connell said in the locker room, "it's one of things, when you can go out and block the man across from you, you can wear purple, you can wear teal, you can wear white, you can wear red, you can wear whatever you want. But you show up on a Wednesday, have a couple days of work and go out and play like that, welcome to the Minnesota Vikings Cam Robinson!"

The Vikings traded for Robinson after left tackle Christian Darrisaw tore the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his left knee in a 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 24.

"First and foremost, we weren't going to make a move just to make a move," O'Connell said on Tuesday. "There was a select group of potential players that you would even put into that category, and what I mean by that is I wanted to get a guy that was a left tackle, a guy that as he got comfortable in the system, we could, in many ways - maybe not all the time - but we could treat him in a way that we treated Christian Darrisaw, who I believe was playing as well as anybody in football."

Robinson practiced with the Vikings on Thursday, went through a walk-through on Friday and played on Sunday.

"The guy gets here, you see him in person, you see the size, the length," O'Connell said . "Just the quiet calmness he had to come in and say, 'Yeah, all that is for me is we called it this or that.' And pretty soon you got pretty close to a full game plan. We held on some things just to limit the stress on Cam, and we were still able to move the football and were just fine."

After winning the Outland Trophy at Alabama in 2016, Robinson had been the Jaguars' starting left tackle in 92 regular-season and three playoff games.

"Obviously, I knew the amount of work and the amount of time it was going to take just for me to be prepared for this game," Robinson said . "I was all in on that. Like I mentioned earlier, my teammates and the coaches here did a good job of preparing me and got me to the point where I could go out and roll."

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It turns out that Robinson will be returning to Jacksonville. The Vikings play the Jaguars at noon CST Sunday at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.

"Even after starting 90-plus games, I think Cam is still a top-half-of-this-league tackle," O'Connell said . "And to acquire that the way we did, to really give up what I think will be when it's all said and done, comp picks included, for potentially the work Cam puts in here, I think it's going to end up being one of the biggest moves that we've done here considering it was such a moment where we needed to solidify that, what it did for the rest of the offensive line and what it will do moving forward, I think was huge."

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