The Vikings dealt a fourth-round pick (No. 121) to Denver for the Broncos’ sixth-round pick (No. 176), seventh-round pick (No. 233) and Denver’s third-round pick in 2008. If you’re Denver that seems like a lot to give up.

The Broncos used the fourth-rounder to take Florida defensive tackle Marcus Thomas, who was suspended for five games early in the 2006 season for a substance abuse violation. He returned to the team but was eventually dismissed from the squad. Safe to say, Thomas was one of the 90 players the Vikings took off their draft board because of character or injury issues.

That trade is the third the Vikings have made so far in this draft. They also have dealt with Atlanta and Tampa Bay.

In fact, the Vikings day began earlier than expected this morning because of that deal with the Bucs. The trade enabled the Vikings to take Texas defensive end Brian Robison (6-3, 259 pounds). He was a three-year starter in college. The deal was the Vikings and Bucs swapped fourth rounders — Tampa Bay now gets No. 106 overall — and Tampa also gets the Vikings’ sixth rounder (No. 182 overall).

Robison had injury problems last season but still started 10 of 12 games at right end. He finished with a career-low 37 tackles and 5.5 sacks Robison had a much better 2005, recording a career-high 58 tackles. He led the team with seven sacks and 15 tackles for loss. Also had 10 quarterback pressures.

Considering the Vikings need for pass-rushing help it’s clear the team thinks he can regain his 2005 form.

Robison said he started off last season with pneumonia, then had a bone bruise in the fourth game and finally sprained his ankle later in the year. “Literally, I just had to fight through it the whole year,” he said. He said those problems caused him to fall in the draft. “I had high, high expectatons coming into this year, coming off a good junior year,” Robison said. “I had actually lost some weight and gotten quicker and faster, so I was looking forward to the year. I just didn’t come up with the production that I wanted, but I feel like definitely I’m still a great football player. I’m going to be willing to prove that when I get up to Minnesota.”

Robison said he flipped sides in college so he can play left or right end. He also is a valuable special teams player. Robison also was a track and field standout at Texas, earning All-Big 12 honors and qualifying for the NCAA Finals in the discus and shot put. He won the conference shot put title in 2005 and 2006.

By the way, at the Adrian Peterson news conference this morning the running back had a No. 28 jersey. The guess here is the Vikings will be able to sell a few of those.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.