The Pivotal Role of Trae Waynes
Henry_Hagen
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It’s well known that the Minnesota Vikings defense is a dominant one. The first names typically mentioned among that defense are Xavier Rhodes, Everson Griffen, Harrison Smith, and Anthony Barr. Perhaps one of the most important players however, Trae Waynes, is not mentioned right away. In 2018, Waynes could be the guy who makes the Vikings defense the best in the NFL or could be one of the very few weak spots in the team.
The long haired cornerback was taken in the first round of 2015 draft. Immediately, he was
touted as the guy who would be the next great prodigy of Mike Zimmer. Despite not playing much in his rookie season, there were still high hopes all around for Waynes.
2016 saw much more playtime for Waynes and it started in week 2 when the Vikings were
taking on the Packers in a game for the history books. It was a Sunday Night Football showdown and was the first ever regular season game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Trae Waynes struggled early in the game by committing a couple of costly pass interference calls and allowing Aaron Rodgers to hit Davante Adams for easy competitions. Waynes would make up for all of this by intercepting Rodgers in the final two minutes of the game, sealing the the win for the Vikings and kicking off their new stadium in the right fashion. The rest of the 2016 season was filled with ups and down for him.
The 2017 season is when everybody realized just how important Trae’s success was for the team. It often made the difference between victory and defeat.
Admittedly, much of his importance is because of the Vikings first cornerback, Xavier Rhodes. Rhodes has become one of the best cornerbacks in the league and often will stop the quarterback from throwing to their best receiver for most of the game. Which turns the quarterback’s attention to his second receiver, who is covered by Waynes. He was the fifth most targeted cornerback in the entire league last season. Which is why if Waynes is on his best game, it can be near impossible for an offense to move the ball through the air. If not, then stellar play of Xavier Rhodes becomes much less important.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of how Waynes affected the games of 2017.
It’s week 2. The Vikings are in Pittsburgh playing in a game where they need the defense to be at their very best. Fans were shocked when they heard that Sam Bradford would not be playing in the game with a knee injury, so it would be Case Keenum making his first start at QB with the Vikings. Nobody is expecting Case to play great with his lackluster past at the helm. If they were going to have any chance to sneak one out in the Steel City, the defense would have to be outstanding. Xavier Rhodes was covering Antonio Brown, the best receiver in football and he shut him down, holding him to just five receptions. Waynes on the other hand, wasn’t great as he gave up a costly forty nine yard pass interference penalty on 2nd & 22.
This penalty would eventually lead to a Pittsburgh touchdown putting the Steelers ahead 14-0. The Vikings offense performed as expected and the Vikings fell 26-9.
This wasn’t the first time Waynes had been flagged. It’s something that he struggled great with in his first two year and the beginning of 2017 saw more of the same. He was called for three pass interference penalties in the first five weeks of play. Fans were beginning to question if he’d ever live up to his potential.
Waynes bounced back tremendously for the rest of the regular season, only allowing one penalty in the final eleven games. It began to show in the record of the Minnesota Vikings as they turned a 2-2 start into a 13-3 finish.
The best game in the career of Trae Waynes came in week 12, when the Vikings were in Atlanta taking on what would be a great test with the high powered Falcon offense.
Of course, Rhodes would cover star receiver Julio Jones. But the Falcons were a dual threat with Mohamed Sanu as their second receiver who was bound to be targeted by Matt Ryan often with Julio well covered. Trae Waynes’ job was to stop Sanu.
He did just that. Holding Sanu to only three receptions for forty three yards. It would be a critical factor as the Vikings won a very low scoring battle 14-9.
The 2017 regular season was a huge success for the cornerback. The 2017 postseason was a different story.
Now the NFC Championship blowout loss in Philadelphia certainly was not entirely Waynes’
fault. It was a poor performance by the whole team. However, Trae Waynes didn’t seem to
handle the pressure of the big game well. He seemed late reading the receivers routes throughout the game, including being blown away on a forty one yard flea flicker touchdown from Nick Foles to Torrey Smith, basically cementing an Eagles win over the lifeless Vikings squad.
As he did in 2017, Trae Waynes will once again play a pivotal role in the Minnesota defense in 2018. Mike Zimmer wants to see the cornerback that we saw in weeks six through sixteen. The one that made the Vikings defense almost impenetrable. Not the cornerback from weeks one through five and the postseason. The one that made mistakes and gave the opposition free opportunities.
Trae Waynes will certainly be a player to keep a keen eye on in the 2018 season.