Brian Robison signed a contract extension that could allow him the opportunity to retire as a Viking, the same way Chad Greenway did. As of now, the veteran defensive end does not plan to play beyond that contract.
This will be Robison’s 11th season, and the 34-year-old defender told Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press the 2018 season will likely be his last.
“I really do believe that probably at the end of those two years, it will be it,’’ Robison said. “It’ll be about my time to call it (a career), but we’ll see how I feel when I get there. … But I would say that more than likely, that will probably be the time that I’m going to have to lay things to the side and get ready for life after football.”
Having arrived in the same draft class with Adrian Peterson, Robison is set to outlast the future Hall of Famer in purple. He is now the longest-tenured player on the team after Greenway retired. Robison’s contract now runs through 2017, with an overall pay reduction being agreed upon in exchange for an extra year and more guaranteed dollars. Robison expected the Vikings to call about a renegotiation, per Tomasson, and the result gave Minnesota $1.8MM in additional cap space.
“This solidifies me to be able to retire as a Minnesota Viking,” Robinson said, via Tomasson. “… I had a long talk with Rick Spielman. We were on the phone for probably 45 minutes, just discussing it.”
The former fourth-round pick registered 7.5 sacks last season and made 16 starts for the Vikings. Since commandeering a starting end job in 2011, Robison has missed just one start. Robison acknowledged third-year player Danielle Hunter could be in position to snare his starting job at some point in the near future, but the veteran’s skill set could probably be used as a pass-rushing-specific capacity in that event.
Wish the Cowboys get him as a rotation player