With the final pick in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night, the Vikings dropped 20 spots and selected Georgia Safety Lewis Cine.
Cine became Georgia’s fifth defender on the national championship team, drafted in the first round, heading to the Vikings, after the Jaguars selected pass Rusher Travon Walker with the first pick, the Eagles took defensive tackle Jordan Davis to 13th overall and the Packers both. -Rounders on Bulldogs defenders (linebacker Quay Walker and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt). Georgia became the first team in NFL history to select five defenders in the first round.
In the 6-2 movie, the Vikings added tough security to Smith’s defense as Harrison Smith entered his 11th season in the league and was trying to find a job next to Smith after Xavier Woods was released. Agency. Cine (pronounced SEEN) broke nine passes to earn his third-team All-America honor in his final year in Georgia and ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash on the combine.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said: “That guy did a lot of play on the really best defense in college football.” Lewis Cine’s name came up a lot. “
He said the Vikings could find a way to keep Cine, Smith and Bynum on the field at the same time, adding that “there is a lot you can do to move in defense.”
Players like Washington cornerback Trent McDuffy, Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton and Florida state pass rider Jermaine Johnson are still available, with the Vikings reclaiming 20 spots from 12 and 32, 34 and 66 from the Lions. 12th overall pick and second-rounder of the Vikings (No. 46 overall).
General manager Quesi Adofo-Mensah said there was “an idea” to pick at number 12, but the Vikings leaned towards their predraft process to trade, eventually taking a player to GM, saying the Vikings had pegged between selection numbers. 13 and 19.
He said the Vikings received a call about the 32nd pick and added “there was finally a curveball” before deciding to pick Cine.
The Lions selected Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams with a choice of Vikings. The move gave Minnesota three picks on the 2nd day of the draft. Adopho-Mensah said the Vikings looked to Williams with a 12th pick, but decided the trade offer from the Lions was purely positive.
The draft chart, which measures the value of each choice, was divided on whether the Vikings won the trade or whether they should gain more from their divisional rivals in exchange for a chance to go over 20 spots.
The 32nd pick – which the Lions won from Super Bowl champions Rams in last year’s Matthew Stafford trade – was the Vikings’ final pick in the first round after 2014, when they traded back in the first round to pick Teddy. Bridge water.
In his first draft as Adopho-Mensah’s general manager, he devised a trick that was familiar to Vikings fans in Rick Spielman’s final draft: trade back.
This is the third year in a row that the Vikings have traded back in the first round. With their second first-round pick in 2020, they slipped six places, with cornerback Jeff Gladney ranked 31st overall. Last year, he slipped nine places from 23rd to 14th before picking left-tackle Christian Darisso.
Kevin O’Connell, the Vikings coach, said of Cine, “That guy did a lot of plays on the really best defense in college football.
U.S. Fans at the Vikings’ draft party at Bank Stadium reacted to the move, which was initially confusing, and then irritated by the team’s return to the first round final.
Adopho-Mensah, who joined the NFL after working on Wall Street, said in his pre-draft news conference on Tuesday that he thinks the draft “volume really matters” – although he added that would not support the idea of storing data late – a round pick at the expense of first-rounders.
