What the Vikings' plan to replace Harrison Smith says about Lewis Cine
EAGAN — When Harrison Smith suffered a concussion against the Philadelphia Eagles, veteran special teamer Josh Metellus entered the game and played the Minnesota Vikings’ final 10 defensive snaps. That came as quite a surprise to the masses, who would have expected 2022 first-round draft pick Lewis Cine to have been the next man up.
Monday night’s game was also Cine’s NFL debut after he missed Week 1 with an injury, so it stood to reason that the more experienced player was used in a pinch. With Smith ruled out versus the Detroit Lions on Sunday, there was reasonable expectation that they would turn to the former Georgia standout after a (mostly) full week of practice.
Not so fast.
“I see a lot of different roles depending on if it’s Metellus or Lewis [Cine],” head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “I would expect to see both those guys play.”
Considering Metellus was already the first guy off the bench when a safety got hurt, it’s possible we could see him in Smith’s spot for the majority of Sunday’s game.
If that’s the case, what would it say about the 32nd overall pick?
During training camp Cine rarely saw first-team reps over Smith’s safety partner Cam Bynum and he acknowledged the challenges of going from college to the NFL, saying, “you have to understand that some things do take time in terms of learning new stuff.”
The safety position requires players to make instant reactions to offensive looks that happen in lightning speed. In order to be trusted against the Lions, whose offense has produced 71 points in its first two games, Cine has to be able to process what’s happening in front of him quick enough to play with his 4.37 40-yard dash speed.
“I feel really good about where Lew is, coming off that injury in the opener and then being able to get back out there and really flash a few times on [special] teams,” O’Connell said. “Just continue to integrate him in there and continue to develop his role, because we’re going to be counting on him for a lot of things this year.”
It’s natural for bells and whistles to go off when the first-round pick doesn’t have everything click right away, but is that fair considering the vast differences between the NCAA and NFL game?
Yes and no.
A few years ago PFF studied the learning curves for different positions and found that safeties were one of the top positions when it came to stepping in right away and succeeding. From that perspective, the expectation on draft night was that Cine would be next to Smith on Day 1. There have been recent examples of safeties becoming instant stars like Derwin James in Los Angeles and Jevon Holland with Miami. Even Bynum was asked to play in place of Smith last season as a first-year player and earned rave reviews.
Former Detroit Lion safety Glover Quin told the Purple Insider podcast that if Cine doesn’t play a significant role on Sunday that it does raise questions about why the coaches aren’t comfortable with him.
“When you see something like that you do have to wonder why they drafted a guy to play the position and he doesn’t win the job, that’s tough,” Quin said. “Sometimes the mental aspect of the game slows guys down so their physical ability can’t take over because they are having to think too much.”
On the other side of the coin there have been recent examples of players who haven’t started right away and eventually shined in their roles. All-Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks did not get the call as a starter in his rookie season until Week 4. Pro Bowl right tackle Brian O’Neill played in two games but did not start until Week 6. Though there were extenuating circumstances due to COVID, even Justin Jefferson was WR3 until Week 3 in 2020.
So Cine’s fate is far from decided.
And at the moment, Metellus’s play on special teams as well as during camp/practice at safety appears to be influencing the coaching staff to put him on the field.
“When Josh has gotten a chance to go in there, he’s really done some good things, and I think he’s been really, really good on special teams,” O’Connell said. “Playing aggressive, flying around, which will only bode well for our defense, adding that into our group.”
“Understanding concepts, how we want to play from a standpoint of how we want our coverages to look, he’s been one of those guys from the jump that all I ever hear from our defensive coaches is that Metellus had a good day, Metellus had another good day, all through training camp,” O’Connell said.
Smith’s past includes two special teams aces who became quality cohorts in the secondary in Andrew Sendejo and Anthony Harris.
O’Connell sees correlation between the responsibilities of special teamers and the safety position.
“This game has become such a space game,” O’Connell said. “Even against these teams that want to get physical with certain kinds of run schemes and concepts, you’re still a lot of times playing in space. Tackling in space, leverage, angles and all of those things that he’s done really really well on. Special teams I think carries over.”
Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said that Metellus has become one of the leaders of his unit, holding weekly player-run meetings with fullback CJ Ham.
“Metellus has a lot of respect from his teammates because of how he practices, how he prepares, how he goes about his business,” Daniels said. “Everything that he does in the meeting room, the equipment room, the training room, it's all at a professional, elite level. Younger guys see it, older guys see it, and they just follow. You could just see the energy that he brings on gameday, the communication that he has. I love that guy.”
Whether Metellus or Cine gets more work next to Cam Bynum on Sunday, the job won’t be easy. Detroit is sixth in the NFL in yards per play and suddenly has a rising-star receiver in Amon-Ra St. Brown. The secondary last week failed to execute some of the technical aspects, which will need to be especially sharp in an important division game against a team on the rise.
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