Lewis Cine – S
This one probably isn’t fair. Lewis Cine hasn’t been disappointing to the point where he is making bad play after bad play or anything even close to that. It’s more that he hasn’t been super impressive to this point.
He was the Vikings’ first choice this season after moving down 20 spots in the draft, so they need to hit on it. That puts loads of pressure and expectations on Cine, so his bar will be much higher to hit and his time frame to hit it is much smaller than every other rookie on this roster.
It was disappointing to hear reports that Cine was out-muscled by Vikings’ new tight end Johnny Mundt on a jump ball. This is a guy who has 10 career receptions and he’s going up and getting the best of the Vikings’ first-round choice. Sure it was one play, but it isn’t the type of report we want to hear when it comes to Cine.
The youngster has had some interceptions in practice but has also dropped some. He is sitting behind Cam Bynum on the depth chart and currently takes the majority of his reps with the second team.
The Vikings are making Cine earn his starting spot on this team and there is no doubt in anyone’s mind he will get there at some point this season. It’s just a little disappointing that all the rookie buzz coming out of training camp is about Andrew Booth Jr. and not the player we took in the first round.