Vikings GM Puts $11 Million 1st-Rounder’s Future on Notice

Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine‘s spot is not secure going into the 2024 season.

The first pick by the new Vikings regime under general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Cine has not panned out as expected. His rookie year was deferred due to a lower leg fracture three weeks into the 2022 season but has had no limitations physically since spring OTAs and minicamps last year.

Under Brian Flores, the Vikings deployed three safeties on the field in various positions. Still, five players logged more snaps at safety than Cine. On a four-year, $11.4 million contract, Cine was a healthy scratch in 8 of 17 games this season and logged just eight defensive snaps — all in a blowout Week 16 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Adofo-Mensah’s first draft class has come under scrutiny considering the lack of return on his top picks — namely Cine and second-round corner Andrew Booth Jr. The Vikings general manager told local reporters in his end-of-year news conference that while Cine and Booth’s stories are unwritten, their futures with the team certainly aren’t either.

“Cine didn’t have a rookie year pretty much,” Adofo-Mensah said, per The Star Tribune. “He got the injury and now he comes to learn a new defense with Brian Flores, so I think that has to be considered. Then, Andrew Booth, same thing, learning from a new defense, adjusting to this style of play. We are continuing to believe in our people, pour into them with our player development resources – all the things we have in this building – but, as I said earlier, it is a results business at the end of the day, and we will see where we end up.”