Jun 8, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.
Minnesota Vikings mandatory minicamp is three weeks away, the first tangible peak at which roster battles might arise.
The purple team is forecasted to win seven or eight games in 2024, the same win total attached to the club last year. This season, however, a new quarterback will take snaps as Kirk Cousins left for the Atlanta Falcons in March.
And when roster battles heat up in July and August, one local voice, the Pioneer Press, claims third-year defensive backs, Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth, are likely to miss out on the 53-man roster. Charley Walters wrote last week, “Former Vikings 1st-round safety bust Lewis Cine, because he’s guaranteed $4 million over the next two seasons, is untradeable. It’s likely he’ll get waived in training camp. If a team were to claim him, it would be responsible for the $4 million. After clearing waivers, some team might be willing to sign him as a FA.”
Walters’ declaration was pretty emphatic, not leaving much to interpretation.
He also opined on Booth’s future, “A 2nd-round pick, CB Andrew Booth, who is guaranteed $900,000 next season, seems close to being done as a Viking.”
Neither Cine nor Booth has taken flight inside the Vikings’ defense since joining the NFL in 2022. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah drafted the pair as his first two picks on the job a bit over two years ago, focusing on defense while leaving the aforementioned Cousins in place, along with Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen for one season. Fast forward to 2024, and all those veteran offensive pieces have departed.
Indeed, Cine and Booth could be on the roster bubble, but stating that their releases are a strong likelihood might be a bit premature. Either man could show up to training camp and the preseason this summer and look fantastic. We shall see.
Cine’s progress was thwarted in October 2022, suffering a compound leg fracture in London during his rookie season. While his recovery seemed to trend positively, he never really saw defensive action in 2023 and, in fact, was only utilized in garbage time late in the season.
For Booth, he’s played quite well when called upon, tallying a 68.6 Pro Football Focus score last season on about 100 coverage snaps. Booth might have a better shot of staying attached to the roster than Cine.
If Walters is correct, and Cine and Booth get the axe, Adofo-Mensah’s first draft class, in hindsight, would appear pretty dreadful, an opinion already held by a large sect of Vikings fans.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.