Koren Robinson

note: I'll provide my comments on every transaction the Vikings make during the offseason.

It never makes as big a splash when a team simply re-signs its own players, but for success in the NFL, sometimes those are the most important moves.

Signing Koren Robinson is a huge deal. He's 25. He was a Pro Bowl Kick Returner (and Returner has been one of the Viking weak spots for years). He adds talent and depth to the Wide Receiver position.

He's a playmaker. I can think of four games last season that the Vikes could have easily lost without his plays: at home v. the Packers, when his solid kick return was important in setting up the 56 yard field goal that had me running around the apartment; at the Giants, when his kick return for a TD was critically important in a game where the Vikes couldn't move the ball on offense; at Green Bay, where he caught a long pass from BJ to set up a short game-winning field goal (I was drunk at the Purple People Eatery--if somebody else caught this pass, forgive me); and at Detroit, where he had 100+ receiving yards and a TD.

You want to hang on to players as versatile as Robinson. And at 25, he seems to have wrestled himself free from some of the personal demons that held him back in the past. I'm excited to have him on the Vikings; I would have been very disappointed if he left.

The team is in the process of creating a new identity. Childress's new coaching staff is, of course, the key to that new identity. But it started being formed as soon as Daunte Culpepper went down with injury last year, and other players like Robinson, Pat Williams, and Darren Sharper were helping the Vikes win games.

So, yay for Koren Robinson.