EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- When the Minnesota Vikings returned from training camp, with Josh Robinson having missed the team's first two preseason games with a hamstring injury, Mike Zimmer gave a not-so-subtle indication that the cornerback needed to return to the field soon.

When he was asked about the injury status of Robert Blanton and Robinson on Aug. 18, two days after the Vikings' second preseason game, Zimmer said, "Blanton's going to go today. And that other guy? Who knows."

Robinson was back on the practice field the next day, and his standing with the Vikings appears to have changed over the last few weeks. He will likely be the team's third cornerback in nickel situations on Sunday against the St. Louis Rams, and since he's recovered from his hamstring injury, defensive coordinator George Edwards said Robinson has made a significant turn for the better.

"Really, the last two weeks you could see him starting to feel a lot better coming off of the injury with the hamstring," Edwards said. "You could see the consistency starting to show up in practice, see the competition starting to show up in practice, just the things that we thought coming in."

The third-year cornerback's struggles in the slot are well-documented, and he'll be back on the outside this year, with the added benefit of the sideline as an extra defender. He's continued to get chances because of his impressive physical traits (a 4.33 40 and a 38 1/2-inch vertical leap at the NFL scouting combine in 2012), and while he'll have to show better instincts in man coverage to keep himself in the Vikings' plans, it appears he's got himself in better standing for now.

"It was a matter of looking at his skillset, things that he brought to the table, then complimenting what we wanted to use him as, as far as the position we wanted to use him," Edwards said. "From that aspect of it, it kind of matched and we kind of knew all along that that’s what we anticipated on seeing, then like I said, the reps that he was able to take out here in practice that maybe he didn’t get in those first couple of preseason games as we progressed down the road. We just saw those things keep building and getting better."