The NFL draft has been a successful place for the Minnesota Vikings to acquire talent. They have drafted a lot of edge rushers in the last 20 years, but only two of them were taken in the first two rounds with Erasmus James and Kenechi Udeze being the last ones.
ESPN’s Jordan Reid released a new mock draft for 2024 and has the Vikings selecting Penn State edge rusher Chop Robinson. Not only does he have a tremendous name, but Robinson is a very talented player.
“Danielle Hunter’s future with the Vikings is still in question, but even if the two sides are able to come to terms on a restructured contract, Minnesota lacks dependable options off the edge. Marcus Davenport signed for just one year, and other players at the position have yet to develop into true starters.
At 6-foot-3 and 242 pounds, Robinson is urgent and displays a variety of pass-rush plans. He didn’t start any games last season and didn’t record a sack, but he did get first pressure within 2.5 seconds on an FBS-best 12.1% of his pass-rush snaps, which shows his ability to create chaos. Robinson still needs to fill out his frame and show he can be relied on as an early-down run defender, but the potential is there.”
While the sack numbers aren’t there, pressure is the metric that you want to follow. If you impact the quarterback, you can make a massive impact on the quarterback in a myriad of ways. Hunter only had 4.5 sacks at LSU and has turned himself into a top-10 pass rusher in football. Adding a dynamic talent like Robinson would be beneficial for the Vikings long term.
