Vikings rookie could potentially make spectacular history in 2022

Could rookie Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine become the first player in franchise history to win the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award?

Since the franchise’s very first season in 1961, no rookie who has ever suited up for the Minnesota Vikings has ever ended their first year with the team as the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year award has existed since 1967 and not a single time has the honor been given to a player following his first season with the Vikings.

This year, Minnesota used their first-round pick in the NFL Draft to select former Georgia safety Lewis Cine. What are the chances of Cine becoming the first Vikings rookie to ever be named the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year?

Can Minnesota Vikings rookie safety Lewis Cine make history in 2022?

Recently, CBS Sports listed their top-10 candidates to win Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2022 and Cine was not among those included.

A few defensive backs like Kyle Hamilton, Derek Stingley Jr., and Sauce Gardner made the list, but Minnesota’s 2022 first-round selection was nowhere to be found.

So something like this might indicate that there aren’t many people that believe Cine could end next season as the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year. The Vikings rookie is also part of a position group, safety, that hasn’t produced a Defensive Rookie of the Year since former Chicago Bears safety Mark Carrier won the award in 1990.

Things aren’t much better when you look at the entire secondary as a whole. Only three defensive backs, all corners, have been named Defensive Rookie of the Year since 1998 (Marshon Lattimore in 2017, Marcus Peters in 2015, and Charles Woodson in 1998).

The good news is that two of these defensive backs received the award within the last seven years. So, at the very least, voters appear to be more open to giving the award to a player in the secondary than anyone really ever has during the history of the honor.

More often than not, a pass rusher winds up being named the Defensive Rookie of the Year and this is the position group Cine will likely have to compete with the most if he’s going to win the award next season.

Guys like Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and New York Giants edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux will likely be the Defensive Rookie of the Year favorites for most people heading into the 2022 season.

Cine’s best chance to win the award will be to put up outstanding numbers and hope guys like Hutchinson and Thibodeaux struggle during their rookie campaigns.

It’s certainly possible, but as a safety, Cine will have more hurdles to overcome in order to become the first-ever Vikings player to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award next season.