What Did Saturday’s Action Do for Lewis Cine’s Future with Vikings?
Coming into the preseason, two high draft picks were squarely under the radar. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah appeared to have missed on both Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr. The latter has already been traded, and the former is a cut candidate. But what about after the Browns game?
What Did Saturday’s Action Do for Lewis Cine’s Future with Vikings?
Lewis Cine would always have a tough time breaking the Minnesota Vikings roster. Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Josh Mettellus, and Theo Jackson are all ahead of the former first-round pick. Jay Ward, who has been used in multiple packages, could also be considered as much. That leaves Cine on the outside looking in when the 53-man roster is ultimately cemented.
Like Booth Jr., it stood to reason that a trade could be swung involving Cine. Rather than parting with the former Georgia Bulldogs defender for nothing, the Vikings may be interested in a conditional seventh-round pick. If he is cut, they will get nothing, which would be an ugly result for the new general manager’s first pick.
Cine certainly made the decision a bit tougher on Saturday. Despite having struggled to stay on the field throughout his career thus far, he was a menace against the Browns. Cine’s 11 total tackles led the team, and he came up with a sack in the process. The Vikings safety got a pair of quarterback hits and picked off a pass. To call it something of a coming-out game would be putting it lightly.
Minnesota could resurrect some value from Cine by keeping him around this season. How much time he gets on defense remains to be seen, but there will be more opportunities as Harrison Smith is not getting any younger. Brian Flores could use the early part of the season as an opportunity to find out what Cine can contribute, and then the roster could shift from there.
If nothing else, Cine may up whatever level of interest opposing franchises have in him. He is still competing for his professional career, regardless of whether that happens in Minnesota or elsewhere. Unfortunately, things have gone like this out of the gate for the former first-round pick, but more productive performances like Saturday would have stopped any notion that he wouldn’t have a career at this level.
Cine has one more game to show up, and he’ll need to replicate the Browns performance to remain in the conversation.
Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes weekly for Twins Daily. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.
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