Lewis Cine stands out in interview process for Minnesota Vikings

Lewis Cine’s selection by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft on Thursday night did much more than just break the draft record for most defensive players taken from one school in the first night.

The selection gives Georgia three Bulldog defensive backs taken in the first round over the last four years with Eric Stokes being selected by the Green Bay Packers in 2021 and Deandre Baker being taken by the New York Giants in 2019. Prior to these three selections, only one Georgia defensive back had been drafted in the first round since 2000, Thomas Davis, who played linebacker for the entirety of his professional career after being selected by the Carolina Panthers in 2005.

Following the announcement of Cine’s selection, he met with the Vikings’ press to discuss what the selection meant to him.

“I just want to say that I’m excited to be officially a Viking,” Cine said. “Thank you to the coaching staff, everyone there, the owners, administration, everyone you know, for believing in me and choosing me to be a Viking.”

The 22-year old from Cedar Hill, TX has spent the last two seasons as a starter on the Georgia defense, but injecting his way into an NFL starting lineup may not be an easy task. Cine was asked about whether he thinks he can make his way into the starting rotation in his first year.

“I think that the fact that I was selected where I was selected by the Vikings, they have a whole lot of faith in me. I just got to prove them right,” Cine said. “Come in with a mindset to soak everything in, to learn, and be coachable. To be a good vibe to your organization and to be an asset in the long-run”

Leaving the Georgia Bulldogs as a champion, Cine was asked what he believes the transition will be like from college to the NFL.

“For one, being at UGA and just the SEC in general, day in and day out competition, going with the best the country has to offer with the elite talent,” Cine said. “Practices were hard. Just being there itself developed me as a player and got me ready for the next level. Obviously there’s things I’m gonna have to do to stay in the league and that’s something I’m prepared to do.”

After spending the last two years as the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, Kevin O’Connell was named the Vikings’ new head coach on February 16th, just three days after winning the Super Bowl. Is it a coincidence that the Super Bowl Champion wanted to select a National Champion in the draft?

Probably.

However, O’Connell didn’t hesitate to talk about Cine and his Bulldogs teammates’ success at Georgia.

“I talked to a lot of the guys throughout the process but I know for a fact that whether it was our defensive back coach Ed Donatello, who’s coached a lot of safeties in this league, and our scouting department, from the first time they went in that school, which obviously you spend a lot of time at Georgia in a draft year with the type of talent they had, the coaches down there, coaches around the league that I’ve talked to say this kid is five stars across the board as far as the type of person he is,” O’Connell said. “But then just what he’s put on tape, you feel really really great about the player and just hearing his voice and hearing just the genuine excitement to be a Minnesota Viking got me excited to get him here. It would be great to get him here tomorrow and we’ll be looking forward to get him to work right away”

O’Connell clearly spent a large amount of time watching the Bulldogs on tape, but according to him, a large part of the Vikings’ scouting process on Cine came through the interviews. Given the number of Georgia players in the draft, the Vikings made a point to ask the Bulldogs they spoke with who they’d most want to continue playing with at the next level. Cine’s name came up a lot.

“I think any time you can have a really good football player with the traits of toughness and that explosive speed, a guy who made a lot of plays on really the best defense in college football. It’s not a coincidence that five of those guys got drafted tonight. I think one of the coolest things is to talk to a lot of those guys throughout the process and a lot of them would say “Hey, you know which one of your teammates would you love to bring with you?” We talked to a lot of those guys but Lewis Cine’s name came up a lot,” O’Connell added. “That kind of unique skill set that we can add to our back end, that kind of interchangeable feel that we can maybe have at that safety position, it’ll make for great competition because we feel really good obviously about Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, and the ability to add this player in Lewis to compete in that room. And then there’s a lot of things you can do personnel-wise to you know be dynamic on defense and just those interchangeable pieces that allow us to put that master plan together that Ed and his staff are going to do. I’m really excited about that”

The second and third rounds of the NFL Draft are on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. EST with several Bulldogs prospects still on the board, including Nakobe Dean, George Pickens and Channing Tindall, among others. Make sure to stay up-to-date on each pick with DawgsHQ.