Vikings Waive DE Erasmus James

Getty Images

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL

It’s official. The Minnesota Vikings’ 2005 Draft was a bust. With the release of defensive end Erasmus James today, the team pretty much wiped their 2005 slate clean. There’s virtually nothing left to show for their choices.

It’s not that their picks were bad ones — at the time. In fact, it looked like a promising group. I thought it was a stretch to take wide receiver Troy Williamson with the seventh overall pick. The Vikes were just trying to replace Randy Moss and, of course, that didn’t work out. Troy couldn’t catch the ball and now he’s biding his time in Jacksonville. But taking Wisconsin DE Erasmus James 18th overall seemed like a great idea. He was going to be the next Jevon Kearse. Not so fast. After scoring four sacks in 15 games during his rookie season, Erasmus had a series of serious knee injuries that cut into his playing time. He tore the ACL in his left knee in Week 2 of the 2006 season. Then, after a long rehab, he returned to the Vikings and played only sparingly in just six games last year. Then he suffered a similar injury to the same knee in Week 13 against Detroit and was once again placed on injured reserve. Vikings head coach Brad Childress was expecting Erasmus to make a full recovery but after he recently failed a physical during OTAs, the team wished him the best and sent him packing.

I’d like to believe another team would give Erasmus a chance. After all, he’s only 25-years-old. But when you look at his injury history and disappointing stats, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would. As for the rest of the Vikings’ 2005 class: Dustin Fox, Ciatrick Fason, C.J. Mosley, and Adrian Ward are no longer with the team. Only second round OT Marcus Johnson remains.

Source: Vikings.com