Questions Answered: Robert Tonyan Fears, Lewis Cine, Vikings Roster Bubble Movement
The following questions are about current Minnesota Vikings topics, answered by VikingsTerritory. Today is the July 31st edition, addressed in a from-the-hip fashion. If you have questions, please email them to [email protected].
Questions Answered: Robert Tonyan Fears, Lewis Cine, Vikings Roster Bubble Movement
Also, please note: These are opinion-based responses. Some answers will be incorrect from time to time. But we’ll try to keep that to a minimum.
Q: If bad news comes out about Robert Tonyan’s injury, who can the Vikings sign as a replacement?
Answer: Nobody, really. Besides Jimmy Graham. The market is slim pickings.
Thankfully, Tonyan appears to have avoided major injury. ESPN Kevin Seifert tweeted an hour after the injury, “TE Robert Tonyan left practice because of back spasms. Timetable uncertain.”
Tonyan should be good to go before too long, and this one won’t bend like Mekhi Blackmon’s injury.
Otherwise, these are the Vikings’ tight ends at the moment:
- T.J. Hockenson (Physically Unable to Perform)
- Josh Oliver
- Robert Tonyan (Back Spasms)
- Johnny Mundt
- Nick Muse
- N’Keal Harry
- Trey Knox
- Sammis Reyes
Aside from Jimmy Graham, the only men available via free agency are TE3 types like Blake Bell and Brandon Dillon, two former Vikings.
Q: What’s your latest prediction for Lewis Cine this summer?
Answer: We’d like to be wrong, but we believe he’ll be waived or traded.
Cine personally recognizes his stakes at this training camp. “It’s huge, it’s huge for me on a personal note. I think I really gotta show out and really ball out and prove why I should be here and why I deserve to be playing in the NFL. It’s unfortunate that I broke my leg,” Cine opined in Eagan last week. “That’s long behind me. I got the opportunity to learn the defense and not be rushed where something bad could happen again, so now I just have to use this opportunity to show that I haven’t lost a step and I’m that same Lew that you guys drafted.”
The safety room is probably too deep for Cine to make the cut. Our preference is a trade to the Tennessee Titans for wide receiver Treylon Burks, though that’s just a theory.
Q: Who’s one player that has hopped off the roster bubble during the first week of camp, if any?
A: Akayleb Evans.
Source? Brian Flores. “We’re going to need him,” Flores said about Evans on Monday. “You can’t teach that height, that length and his speed. Like all of us, he’s working to be as consistent as he can possibly be.”
Flores added about Evans on Monday, “I thought Akayleb did a lot of good things last year. I think there was a lot of growth and improvement from him, from when I got here throughout the season. There’s ups and downs for every player … but that’s life in the NFL. He’s bounced back, he’s strung some good days together, and we’re going to need him.”
And after the Vikings’ cornerback tragedies and injuries, Evans feels like a shoo-in to make the team.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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