Lewis Cine not practicing with Vikings, is a trade in the works?

Last week, Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine opened up about how this summer's training camp is extremely important to not just his future with the team, but his future in the entire NFL also.

Well, it seems like the Vikings have potentially already made a decision about Cine's future with the franchise, as he was not a participant in either of Minnesota's last two training camp practices on Saturday or Monday, and there has been no indication that an injury is what has prevented him from practicing.

Are the Minnesota Vikings about to trade Lewis Cine?

Typically, when an NFL team holds a player out of practice for non-injury reasons, it means that they are either working on a new contract, or attempting to make a trade.

In Cine's case, it's easy to believe that the Vikings could be currently working on finding a team that would be willing to trade for the young safety. Minnesota's safety room is overflowing with talent and Cine hasn't done enough in his short tenure with the team to surpass anyone who is above him on the position group's depth chart.

It is still possible that he could be dealing with an injury or an illness, especially since the NFL doesn't require teams to share a daily injury report with the public during training camp or the preseason as they do during the regular season. But, as it was mentioned previously, there have been no reports of Cine currently dealing with an injury.

So, what could the Vikings even get in a trade for their 2022 first-round pick? Probably not much. Cine's age (24) is the only thing currently going for him, as he hardly played in his first two seasons with the Vikings.

At best, Minnesota could potentially land a conditional sixth-round draft pick in exchange for the safety. But there's no reason to think that the Vikings are going to end up landing a Day 1 or Day 2 draft pick in a trade involving Cine.

Minnesota could also use him as part of a trade package to land a veteran cornerback at some point before the start of the regular season since the team still needs to add another experienced corner after losing Mekhi Blackmon to a torn ACL last week.

At this point, the Vikings probably don't even really care if they don't get much in return for Cine. Minnesota likely would just prefer to end their relationship with the safety instead of continuing to pretend he might turn into something useful for them in the near future.

More Vikings News and Analysis