James fails physical, Vikes cut bait

When the Minnesota Vikings traded several draft choices to Kansas City for Jared Allen before the draft last month several experts made them the favorites to unseat Green Bay and win the NFC North.

While Allen improves the defense immensely it’s not like the team is loaded at defensive end. Besides Allen the team has Brian Robison, Ray Edwards, and Jayme Mitchell. Assuming a good result in his battle with leukemia, Kenechi Udeze will rejoin that group in 2009.

Erasmus James has been a bust so far amassing just five sacks since being drafted in the first round in 2005 and he is coming off knee injuries in successive seasons. But with the collection of unproven talent accompanying Allen it would have made sense for the Vikings to at least give him another training camp to see if he could round into form.

It’s not going to happen, however. In a move that brought a collective “huh?” to the mouths of the Zoneblitz duo, the team chopped James from its roster Friday after he failed a physical. The Associated Press and KFAN-AM radio are reporting the roster move.

I’m no huge fan of James. And Robison and Edwards have both shown signs of being solid role players, at a minimum. The Vikings pass rush the past several years, however, has been abysmal and there would have been little risked at this point to give James just a few more months to see if he could make it back.

Just another in a string of things that make you go “huh,” I guess.