What Can We Expect for Lewis Cine in Week 2?
K. Joudry
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Unfortunately, Lewis Cine had to miss his first NFL game due to an injury. Thankfully, he looks ready to go for the upcoming Eagles game. His first game will be an important one given that it’s occurring on MNF and against a top team in the conference.
What can we expect for the 1st-round safety?
Lewis Cine and The Eagles Game
Unless something unexpected happens, Harrison Smith and Camryn Bynum will remain the starters on defense.
Even still, I’m looking for at least a handful of snaps on defense for Cine. There has been plenty of speculation about three-safety looks at different points in the offseason. Bringing in the hard-hitting rookie at certain points may help to slow down Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.
It seems strange, but it has been a bit easy to overlook Lewis Cine.
Heading into Week 1, the Vikings had two rookie starters: RG Ed Ingram and punter Ryan Wright. Otherwise, the rookies either didn’t play or were in a depth role. We got to see several make contributions on special teams, and Akayleb Evans got in for some defensive snaps when Cameron Dantzler went down for a bit.
During Monday Night Football, Cine will get the chance to show Vikings fans – and the rest of the NFL – what he can do.
Philadelphia won’t be an easy opponent. Their offense has a QB who’ll be difficult to contain. Moreover, their skill position players – A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, and Miles Sanders (among others) – are impressive. Inserting another defender who can move well and hit hard should help. The draft profile on PFF praises him for his tackling abilities: “Cine was the biggest riser down the stretch for the Georgia defense, and he’s one heck of a tackler – for his career, he missed only 11 tackles on 159 attempts.”
Soon, Cine will get the chance to start translating that tackling success to the NFL. At the very least, he ought to have an impact on special teams, as coordinator Matt Daniels suggested.
Andrew Booth Jr. – the team’s 2nd-round corner – is battling an injury. We’ll see if he ends up being ready to roll.
Looking Ahead
Minnesota’s defense played really well last week. Allowing just 7 points is an excellent effort, so I don’t expect massive changes with the personnel.
Both Harrison Smith and Camryn Bynum finished the game with impressive scores on PFF. Perhaps the main play that stands out is Smith’s interception, though they did plenty of things well. It won’t be easy to steal snaps from one of the starting two, but Lewis Cine can still have a role for the Vikings. There’s a reason why Kwesi Adofo-Mensah used a 1st-round selection on him. Clearly, the team thinks he’ll have a role for their defense. We’ll need to see how large that role will be in Week 2.
The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. on Monday night.
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