The Vikings are Thrilled
At Christmas, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should take a couple minutes to send a card to Houston GM Nick Caserio. Maybe tuck a gift card for Caribou Coffee inside.
Why?
Well, the Texans took the plunge on Cam Robinson, so the Vikings are very pleased. Doing so officially put Minnesota back in the game to snag another draft pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Unlike the upcoming event, the 2026 one promises to have more draft picks for Minnesota. That has been the plan all along.
The Vikings are Thrilled
Start off with the news.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter offered the word: “Free-agent OT Cam Robinson is signing with the Houston Texans, per source.” The Athletic’s Dianna Russini offered some clarity on the money: “The Texans are signing T Cam Robinson to a one-year deal worth between $12 million that can be worth up to $14.5 million, per source.”
Nick Korte, the compensatory picks expert for Over the Cap, unpacks the significance: “And there’s that extra 2026 compensatory pick that the Vikings could have been waiting for. Because Cam Robinson got enough to secure a 5th round valued contract, it also places this comp pick firmly as a 4th or 5th, depending on Daniel Jones’s snaps.”
Kick it back a bit further. The GM has always been planning for this outcome.
Shortly after the season ended, Adofo-Mensah met with the Minnesota media. While reflecting on Robinson, Adofo-Mensah dropped a hint about snagging a comp pick: “We knew from an asset standpoint of what it would cost, but also potentially of what it could be on the back end and what that would net us as a team.”
Essentially, the GM knew that he needed to send over a conditional 4th/5th in 2026 while understanding that he could snag a Day 3 pick for allowing Robinson to walk away in free agency.
“That one in particular, we feel really great about what we did,” Adofo-Mensah further reflected on the Robinson trade.
Basically, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah shipped out a conditional 4th/5th for a starting left tackle and a conditional 7th. Doing so did cost cap space, so that’s a factor. At the tail end of things, though, Adofo-Mensah was able to re-add a 4th/5th. Not bad, right?
Christian Darrisaw is the team’s present and future at left tackle. If he isn’t ready to go in time for Week 1 — the Vikings tend to be cautious with player injuries and recoveries — then Justin Skule is the first in line to hop into that starting spot.
With some of the details still being sorted out, the Vikings are sitting on more than $30 million in cap space and a pair of extra picks for 2026. Those realities exist even after adding and/or re-adding players like Byron Murphy Jr., Aaron Jones, Harrison Smith, Javon Hargrave, Jonathan Allen, Ryan Kelly, and Will Fries (among others) to medium/large deals.
Tip of the cap to Minnesota’s GM
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.