Cine on the move?

[JimmyinSD]

Maybe its just the fact that he got some good money as a 1st round draft pick, suffered a terrible injury and decided the NFL dream wasn't what it was supposed to be. Walk away with some cash and save yourself from further injury and getting the shit beat out of you every Sunday as a player.

he can retire at any time if that was why he was sitting out.

[MAD GAINZ]

medaille
Like what is your evidence for thinking this?  To me, there’s no evidence that he’s a crazy good player at the NFL level.  He had like two defensive snaps through 4 games in 2022 and eight snaps in all of 2023.  They haven’t let him get on the field.  On special teams, I’ve never noticed him playing, even though he’s got snaps.  You’d think that with his speed, he’d be making an impact as a gunner, but he’s not.
 
For me, I’m chalking it up as he was just a super fast guy on a loaded Georgia defense that didn’t have to know too much, and is too dumb to understand NFL defenses.  I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he lost some speed from the injury and now has little redeeming qualities.

It's been a while, so my memory is sparse, but did he have any real "intelligent" type attributes/highlights in college?  I just remember him having a lot of speed and tackling hard.


I think it’s safe to say you watched him very little if at all in college. I’m a Bulldog fan, I watched him play a lot.

It should be obvious I was referring to college as that’s the last place he’s had any real snaps. Yes, he was an excellent college player. He played as a freshman - at Georgia. You have to be pretty special to start as a freshman on a Georgia defense. 

As for mental game, he was excellent. He showed excellent (among the top in all of college football) awareness in the run. If you were to design a nickel safety taking the slot, you’d have him. Instincts and reaction were also top tier. Football intelligence shows out in all of his tape. It was a high rated attribute for him coming out. 

Personally, I preferred Hamilton as a player, but I get why Kwesi liked him and he probably fit what they were looking for a little better. 

In his rookie year, he didn’t seem to have any trouble with the defensive playbook, his struggles looked like NFL offense recognition. This is common for backend defenders seeing highly complex NFL offenses for the first time. 

At the end of the day, we saw very little of Cine. Just four games in (his third game) he suffered a devastating leg injury. He had a compound fracture to go along with ligament damage. It was the kind of injury that was could be career ending not too long ago. 

So, Lewis Cine we hear is struggling. The original report here however is based on his not practicing. The coach said he had a leg injury, so perhaps that’s why? Either way, if you want to comment, that’s cool, but you need to know at least something about the guy if you want to make a rational point.

What?  Who cares if he was a great college player?  Lots of great college players end up busting in the NFL.  

The fact that Cine was a first round pick...  AND the FIRST pick of our new GM and HC...  AND he was running with the 2nd and 3rd unit in training camp should tell you something.  The guy was a first round pick and was playing special teams with two late round safeties ahead of him on the depth chart.  Now another guy in Theo Jackson we picked off a teams practice squad is showing out in front of him.

I'm sure the broken leg didn't help his development at all, but there were red flags when he couldn't unseat Bynum or Metellus (who are good NFL players) and they had him playing special teams exclusively.  We're three years in and he's S5 on the depth chart.  He's a bust.

[FLVike]

Funny thing is that 22 draft could have been fantastic. Very good players were sitting there when KAM gave it away.

[Knucklehead]

What?  Who cares if he was a great college player?  Lots of great college players end up busting in the NFL.  

The fact that Cine was a first round pick...  AND the FIRST pick of our new GM and HC...  AND he was running with the 2nd and 3rd unit in training camp should tell you something.  The guy was a first round pick and was playing special teams with two late round safeties ahead of him on the depth chart.  Now another guy in Theo Jackson we picked off a teams practice squad is showing out in front of him.

I'm sure the broken leg didn't help his development at all, but there were red flags when he couldn't unseat Bynum or Metellus (who are good NFL players) and they had him playing special teams exclusively.  We're three years in and he's S5 on the depth chart.  He's a bust.

How did a scouting department that hit home runs with Metellus and Bynum whiff so badly with Cine?

[purplefaithful]

How did a scouting department that hit home runs with Metellus and Bynum whiff so badly with Cine?

Probably because these commodities are humans...As much as we want it to be 100% science it just aint. Maybe Donatell had something to do with his development?

I don't believe that same Scouting staff was kept intact after that draft. I believe it was a holdover from the MZ/RS era. 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

[MaroonBells]

Probably because these commodities are humans...As much as we want it to be 100% science it just aint. Maybe Donatell had something to do with his development?

I don't believe that same Scouting staff was kept intact after that draft. I believe it was a holdover from the MZ/RS era. 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

People call it a crapshoot and then wonder why there are misses. The best scouting staffs in the NFL have dozens of misses on their resumes. Really weird we dwell on this so much.

[minny65]

What a Cine, I also wanted Hamilton but Oh well that was a big miss. Spelly hit it with both Bynum and Mettelus at Safety so that came make up for Kwesi's miss. I am very surprised Spelly is not a GM. He was well above average on draft and free agents. Not great but above average. Right now, Kwesi biggest hit is Addison, but he is a first rounder, and you need a few more than that.

[MaroonBells]

What a Cine, I also wanted Hamilton but Oh well that was a big miss.  Spelly hit it with both Bynum and Mettelus at Safety so that came make up for Kwesi's miss.  I am very surprised Spelly is not a GM.  He was well above average on draft and free agents.  Not great but above average.  Right now, Kwesi biggest hit is Addison, but he is a first rounder, and you need a few more than that.

Don't forget Kwesi hired O'Connell and together they established the team culture, which is one of the bright spots. Kwesi also shed mountains of salary by making tough decisions on Kendricks, Thielen, P2, Barr and Cook. I didn't agree with all of them--I would've tried harder to keep Cousins and Hunter--but the Vikings were able to replace both in the draft. 

Vikings now have a much younger roster and a shit ton of cap space going into 2025, a year that should see them hand the keys to the offense over to their 1st round draft pick. I like where we stand.  

But at the end of the day Kwesi will be judged by how well McCarthy does. That's all anyone will care about.

[medaille]

Spielman was slightly above average. He’s probably the Cousins of GMs. His teams consistently had enough talent to hover around the edge of making/missing the playoffs. In my mind, he had too many draft misses, but he had a lot of homeruns. He never really was able to get both sides of the ball figured out at the same time. His biggest failures are his lack of solving the QB position and his taking his entire tenure to get a functional OLine, which he tried to achieve by replacing his only good players and not replacing his bad players.

He probably deserves to be an NFL GM, but nobody wants an old, pretty good, but not good enough GM. They want the guy that bring them a championship, not a guy that’s going to linger around edge of the playoffs, and they'll risk busting to risk winning big.

[pattersaur]

Spielman... probably deserves to be an NFL GM, but nobody wants an old, pretty good, but not good enough GM.  They want the guy that bring them a championship, not a guy that’s going to linger around edge of the playoffs, and they'll risk busting to risk winning big.

Spot on. And even though we love the Vikings and many of us think well enough about Spielman, I think the national narrative mostly see the Vikes as just another team. So to most, RS was GM of a mostly average team for a long time and never got to the dance. That resume is a tough sell to owners and fans.

EDIT- Oh, and regarding Cine... if he's cut that's one of the biggest busts in franchise history. Sad! But it happens.