The Wrong Lewis Cine Lesson Ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft
Follow the logic to see if it makes sense.
Back in the 2022 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings opted for safety Lewis Cine in the opening round. The defender didn’t get to his third NFL season with the team that drafted him, getting cut prior to the 2024 season. In fact, Cine only played in 10 defensive snaps as a Viking. Therefore, the Vikings should avoid drafting a safety in the opening round; after all, the last attempt went very, very poorly.
If that logic were sound, then there would be no Justin Jefferson in Minnesota.
Jump back to the 2016 NFL Draft. Minnesota was in search of receiver help, so they opted for Laquon Treadwell at No. 23. At no point in his time with the Vikings did Treadwell live up to that draft position. If Minnesota allowed that reality to scare them off of selecting a receiver in the 1st Round of a draft, then Minnesota wouldn’t have been giddy to snag Justin Jefferson at No. 22 back in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Lewis Cine, Laquon Treadwell, & The 2025 Vikings Draft
To be sure, there’s a case to be made that opting for a safety in the opening round of a draft is a poor decision.
The basic gist of the argument is that safety talent isn’t terribly hard to find. Consider, for instance, Josh Metellus. He has developed into one of the NFL’s most underrated defenders and he was scooped up in the 6th Round. Meanwhile, Theo Jackson (also a 6th-Round selection) is looking like a starter for Minnesota in 2025. He got snagged from another team’s practice squad.
When starting-level safeties can be snatched up on Day 3 or even off of a practice squad, why lean on a precious asset like a 1st-Round pick for the position?
The hope, of course, would be to get someone truly special, like Harrison Smith.
The Vikings opted to snag the safety from Notre Dame at No. 29 back in 2012 and it’s safe to say that it was one of the best selections in franchise history. Going into Year 14, The Hitman has been to six Pro Bowls, been a first-team All Pro, a second-team All Pro, and was in the running for Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 (he finished fourth in voting). Someday, he’ll generate debate about the Hall of Fame; many — including yours truly — would insist that he deserves to get in.
The Vikings, quite possibly, could look at one of this year’s top safeties as being a special player. If so, then an opening-round selection could be worth it.
Consider, for instance, a safety who’s able to successfully jump into the slot. In that scenario, the position may obfuscate the player’s true value within Brian Flores’ defense. Getting top-notch slot coverage is to be coveted since it’s a key facet of playing winning football. Forget what the player’s position is; the goal is to get excellent play, not lean on certain positions for certain jobs. If a linebacker can be a shutdown slot defender, let him do the job. If it’s a safety, no problem. The point is to get the job done regardless of a position title.
From basically Day 1, the Lewis Cine pick was awful. Start off with the horrendous trade; sacrificing twenty spots in the draft’s highest round without gaining a future 1st is awful trading. And the pick that did get used in that 1st Round ended up being for a very poor player for Minnesota (which is to say nothing of the picks that followed in Andrew Booth, Ed Ingram, and Brian Asamoah).
The critical takeaway, however, can’t be that choosing a safety in the opening round is a cursed strategy. If the Vikings allowed that kind of thinking to permeate their decision making, then the Laquon Treadwell failure would have prevented them from snagging Justin Jefferson.
So, don’t write off the safety position in its entirety. At the end of the day, the merit of using No. 24 (or possibly a pick further down if there’s a trade back) on a safety will come down to that individual player and whether or not he can develop into an impact starter for the Vikings.
The 2025 NFL Draft begins on April 24th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.