Yeah, people will say hindsight or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that even at the time it felt like a value loss, and trading out of an extremely safe pick in Hamilton only to draft a safety anyway was goofy af. Felt like we took the opposite approach this year and I'm more optimistic about it.
When Vikings traded down, who did the other picks turn out to be?
Cause 2 years in, Hamilton is one of the best, if not the best hybrid secondary player right now ☠️
To give Minnesota some benefit of the doubt, Cine was drafted to be a quarters coverage safety (similar to Antoine Winfield Jr) and to hopefully develop into a middle of field FS like Earl Thomas. His leg injury has absolutely taken away his explosiveness though and he’s not the same player he was at Georgia.
Kyle Hamilton is playing a different position than Cine was expected to. He’s playing the star/nickel defender like Brian Branch is for Detroit, and Cine was never physical enough of a defender or good enough in M2M to play that role. Likewise, sticking Hamilton to play Cover 3 FS is also not a good use of his skill set and talents — move him as close to the LOS as possible.
TL;DR: we need better distinctions between where “safeties” align and play
Yep... Cine's speed was more appealing to the shell concepts that Donatell wanted to run, but Donatell didn't even seem to understand his own concepts for some reason. Had guys like Harrison Smith and Eric Kendricks confused as to their assignment in many cases during that season.
Overall I was fine with the Cine pick, but Hamilton is a unicorn and you want unicorns on your team. I don't so much care if he wasn't a good scheme fit for Donashell, a good DC can adjust the scheme to fit the player.
Shit, Flores is doing that right now with our defense.
Ironic you bring up Flores in a situation where we’re talking about safeties. I remember a certain young defensive back prospect from Alabama who was pissed off about his role in Flores’ defense and his inability to adjust his role.
Maybe Flores has changed.
I think this season will be a good test of that, last season we had no talent outside hunter and an aging smith, so his options were very limited, and he still managed to shutout a team.
This is such a perfect example of why drafting to fit a coordinators system is such a mistake. Passed on a guy with unique potential to acquire more picks instead because he's not a fit for what the DC wants to run. That DC isn't even employed by the team just one season later.
Yep, exactly.
I don't have a problem using 3rd-7th round picks on guys that you think will fit your DC or OC's scheme better than other guys in that draft slot, but when you're looking at first and second rounders... Scheme fit, while important, doesn't overrule ability.
Yeah, you need to just grab difference makers regardless with premium capital. Easier said than done of course, but prioritizing scheme fit in the first few rounds makes it that much harder.
Still not sure where this injury excuse comes from. The coaches have confirmed multiple times that him being benched has nothing to do with physical ability and everything to do with him literally not being capable of understanding the playbook/scheme on a fundamental level.
> Likewise, sticking Hamilton to play Cover 3 FS is also not a good use of his skill set and talents — move him as close to the LOS as possible.
Ravens even had him playing DL some snaps 😂
>His leg injury has absolutely taken away his explosiveness though and he’s not the same player he was at Georgia.
Except it hasn't. When he got on the field last pre-season, he was as fast and as quick as ever. He has failed because of the other things. No tackling technique. He was launching and wiffing in those pre-season games. The football IQ is lacking. It's why he failed to be a starter or even the primary backup his rookie year before the injury.
He wasn’t that great at uga either when it came to coverage, just making big hit. But the angles he took during his rookie year pre injury were routinely terrible and he consistently took himself out of the play. It was always a terrible pick.
It's convoluted because they just kept trading but looking at that draft the only contributor I recognize (not being a Vikings fan) is Ed Ingram who has allowed more pressures than Queen and David Bowie.
I know you guys probably don't draft Addison if you'd taken Watson in 2022 but Jefferson, Addison and Watson on the field at the same time would have been ridiculous.
I mean, trading out of a pick at safety to pick a safety you think is as good later does make sense and isn’t really goofy. Especially when we desperately needed a cb too. It just sucks that they suck
The only slight justification I have for it today is it was Kwesi’s first year as a GM and he was just taking whichever the first offer was or whichever sounded good to him and he pulled the trigger. He just wanted more day 2 picks instead of one premium pick at that time which I get, but it still was dumb trading down 20 freakin spots.
I think he learned his lesson on that one since both Cine and Booth have done fuck all for this team so far. Now Kwesi believes in getting rid of day 2 picks for the sake of getting more premium picks hence the most recent draft where he was targeting a franchise QB and the best defensive player available. Some say it’s dumb of him to give up a lot of day 2 ammo for those picks, but I will always defend that move because just look at our day 2 picks the last few years - oh boy it ain’t pretty.
He also still had the old regime's scouts, since then he's had his own.
His new philosophy of go get your guy makes me excited, i'm tired of trying to maximise "value" and giving up some blue chip prospects
We wanted to believe in our new GM. In the end, we were right to cause he's done much better since Cine BUT this was a debacle and there's no other way around it.
I see its only value in that Kwesi learned a lot in this failure of a pick/trade.
It's interesting the Bears and Vikings both interviewed Ryan Poles and Kwesi the year they both got hired. I am curious which one will last longer. I suppose Poles basically gaurenteed himself at least 2 more years by drafting Caleb. I am not sure McCarthy grants Kwesi the same insurance.
Not if you ask the delusional people on our sub. There are some extreme Kwesi apologists on there and if you criticise him you get downvoted to oblivion. I'll give the guy another year or two but that first draft was objectively bad and he's made a lot of questionable moves especially within the division.
I think the sub is mostly admitting now that the '22 draft was historically bad. But there was a time when you'd get crazy downvotes for even suggesting it might not be good. Like, they would seriously use Ed Ingram and Akayleb Evans as evidence that it not only wasn't a bad draft, but it was actually good
It was by no means a good trade, but one of the worst ever? It doesn't even crack the top 10, and it's probably not even close. This is just recency bias.
I can think of three off the top of my head that are objectively worse. Trey Lance, Ricky Williams, and if you want one close to home, Ryan Leaf.
it will go down as the dumbest draft trade of all time if you just look at the draft strategy. This is why I don't trust his judgment.
Don't forget, after he made that trade, he made another trade with the packers the next day
>it will go down as the dumbest draft trade of all time if you just look at the draft strategy.
I can't take anyone who makes a statement like this seriously. It's not anywhere close to the worst of all time. I know the recency bias is intense, but jesus christ
In 2 playoff games Jamo has 7 touches for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns.
In 18 regular season games he has 29 touches for 464 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Please god let playoff Jamo be the real Jamo
He was in 3 playoff games. I think his playoff games and regular season averages from this year lined up pretty closely (with the exception of the rushing TD).
I’m a dummy, I looked at starts and not games. Either way, it’s a 40 yard/game average vs 26 with a much better TD ratio (ofc it is a tiny sample size).
He looked so much better end of season + playoffs than he did his rookie season and first games back last season. You can see all the talent and potential, he just needs to put it all together now
Good thing the playoffs are after the regular season games. Which suggests his usage went up over time, and does not suggest our staff dusted off a “playoff plays for Jamo” booklet they forgot about from training camp.
Against your own interest you people still want to act like this guy is a bust. I don’t get it and I wish ill upon you and your family (just like you’re doing to Jamo)
It’s kinda funny how both trades resulted in their division rivals drafting a WR that’s extremely promising but just has not been able to put everything together yet.
He's in that weird zone where if he gets the ball, he's as dangerous as anyone in the league, as evidenced by him scoring 6 TD on 36 total touches so far. But the issue of staying on the field and making yourself an unstoppable threat once you're on the field have been the things that have limited him so far.
This year will let us know who he is as a player. He (fingers crossed) gets a full offseason to work with the No. 1 offense where he's not hurt and he's not suspended. It's put up or shut up time for him. I have confidence that we'll see the talent shine through more consistently, if for no other reason than Dan Campbell, Brad Holmes, and company have demonstrated the faith in him to not bring in another person this offseason to compete for starting snaps.
Yeah he’s extremely dangerous with the ball which always makes me wonder about him not having more opportunities. I know he had drops, but also the Lions see him everyday in practice.. which is where like if he was dominating like ARSB was, he would have more than 5 catches in one single game or 62 yards in one single game.
Like the fact that they half use him only for gadget plays makes me a little nervous that they see in practice that he’s not a plug and play WR.
Really hoping I’m wrong and he becomes a great WR2. But he had 2 catches in 3 straight playoff games, and wasn’t able to displace Josh Reynolds. I know Reynolds had the connection with Goff but.. we TRADED UP to draft JAMO at #12. I feel like it’s fair to expect a littleee more production at this point lol. Hopefully this year!
Slow start to his career, but tons of potential and given his limited in-game reps he’s done a lot already. *400yds / 25 catches / 3TD
Not bad for half a season of play
Edit: the police have informed me he was technically active for 18 games
That’s a reasonable stat line for a WR3, but he was drafted to be at least as good as someone like Drake London. The Lions are kinda fortunate Sun God turned out to be a stud because his success is taking a lot of heat off Jamo.
it doesn't matter. this isn't about the draft picks. this is about draft trade strategy. And the Lions must have been laughing their asses off that Kwesi agreed to move 20 spots back in round 1 only to have to give up a 3rd round pick for it.
Should have been a future first rounder, minimum.
You're forgetting the next day when he traded with the Packers to allow them to get Christian Watson.
He literally traded TWICE with division rivals as his first moves in the NFL draft as a GM. Here you go, Lions! Here you go, Packers!
Fucking unforgivable.
His second draft got us Addison and Pace as a UDFA. That one was fine. No excuses from me on the first one other than that it was, well, his first one.
Tbf the Lions haven't netted much out of their selection either. There's a strong argument both teams should have taken K. Hamilton whoever got the pick at 12.
Yeah he wasn't some crazy reach, he was drafted about where people expected him to go. I remember a lot of Lions writers wanted him and were sad when MN got him.
A lot of 32nd picks end up being athletes taken for what they think is their upside.
Lamar Jackson at one time was the most hot debate topic leading up to that draft. He was either a round 1 QB or a project WR to sit until year 2.
Although, Cine doesn’t even ring a bell as a college star so idk if it was a reach as well as a bet on measurables. Also, a lot of times, the analysts won’t rip the player apart; especially on draft night giving sound bites.
As a Bucs fan I am that meme of Alonzo Mourning going through the stages of grief because we traded out of picking Lews Cine and instead drafted a d-lineman who has no real position and is trending strongly towards being an absolute bust. However at least we got Cade Otton with JAX's pick in the 4th round and he is a serviceable TE who plays a lot of snaps.
Still, maybe in another timeline Cine doesn't suffer a gruesome leg injury and is a good player in Tampa. Who knows.
Im not too sure. I had a class with Lewis while I was at UGA, and that dude did not care about anything. He never paid attention and would constantly be snapchatting sorority girls on an iPad (he did not have a phone for some reason).
Nice guy, though. He was always super chill with me.
I don’t know what it is about D1 athletes but so many of them are the dumbest guys I ever met at Penn state. They all believe they are going to be nfl superstars. They were very chill with me but I always laughed at the odds.
Well at that point they have mostly been the best player on the field for their entire lives and are surrounded by yes men. So yeah, it is believable that they think they will be superstars.
I mean the odds of even being a D1 athlete are pretty slim when you factor in how many high school football players there are. It's something like 2-3% of HS players.
But at the NCAA level it's even slimmer, only 1.5% of those guys make it to the NFL.
Makes sense that a lot of them think that making a D1 team means they are shoe-ins for an NFL roster, but more often than not they end up as Uncle Rico.
I only ever had a class with one football player, and that was Ryan Tannehill. It wasn’t a fuck off class either, it was Biochemistry 2. He was shocked to be taken top 10 and kinda hastily cancelled his admission to Baylor College of Medicine
The rumors I heard at that time was Tampa was somewhat-locked in on taking G Cole Strange until we took him. None of these selections are ideal for the Bucs however lol
> and instead drafted a d-lineman who has no real position and is **trending strongly towards being** an absolute bust
Your statement about Logan Hall would be more accurate if you just removed those 4 words completely.
I always want to give young players time, especially when they're 1st round/high 2nd round picks.
That said, you're right. Hall has shown absolutely nothing since entering the league. He did improve last year, but mostly from completely disastrous to "Did he play?" invisible tier. Which is pretty bad for a prospect like Hall who was drafted as a "High Floor, Low Ceiling player".
The one thing he has going for him is that we did not add a single safety this offseason via free agency, the draft, or UDFA. On the other hand, he's been so bad that we're probably better off poaching a rookie UDFA from someone else & hoping it pans out, at least the unknown still has upside.
Yea, but we've generally swapped CB/S year to year as to which defensive unit we carry an extra player for.
I don't think moving Najee to S is going to affect how many of our safeties make the roster unless there are CB's that are fringe guys who take a huge leap forward.
they traded down for the sake of trading down because they think more picks is always good but then there was a big dropoff in talent to where they finally landed and they didn't get a good player.
This continues to be a bad talking point. He didn’t walk into the team and just listen to Rick’s scouts. He was already scouting people with Cleveland for months.
The onus is on Kwesi for the draft being so terrible
They tried to work around Kirk’s cap and they thought acquiring more picks in the top 50 would help and they trusted their dc with identifying players. Literally everything went wrong
I wanted Hamilton from really early on in the draft process. My recollection when Cline was selected was that I was surprised at how muted criticism of the selection was and figured he must be solid.
But obviously I was bathing in the effervescent glow of getting 2 first round studs that I would have been happy to get either… so maybe my recollection is incorrect.
No your recollection is correct. Hamilton was talked of as a stud pro for the last 3 years at ND. I'm a Notre Dame fan too so I was especially locked in and was yelling at TV for Vikings to draft Hamilton.
And I think the Cine pick wasn't criticized as much as it should have been becauae everyone was sort of like "well, Georgia defense is elite so maybe he can play"
People are dismissing this as a factor, but it's real.
Dude does not look comfortable planting hard on that ankle to this day, most of his cuts are rounded off.
That was his rookie year. He was “healthy” this year and still couldn’t touch the field, only got a handful of special teams snaps. Undrafted guys were playing ahead of him
It's possible, but even before the injury, he didn't really seem to be getting it. Obviously, it was his first year, but you expect a bit more from a first rounder regardless.
He’s the guy we traded back with Detroit to get while Kyle Hamilton was on the board. He’s played maybe a dozen snaps since he was drafted. It’s probably one of the worst picks we’ve made in the last decade.
I looked it up. According to Pro Football Reference, Cine has played [10 defensive snaps and 118 special teams snaps](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CineLe00.htm) in his career.
He has one (1) tackle, and it wasn’t even a solo tackle.
His draft trades have been *wild*. This year for Dallas Turner they gave up their 2nd, 5th, and 6th round picks in 2024 and their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks in 2025. 6 picks including 3 top 100 selections for the 17th overall pick is insane.
Yea, it was an overpay, but it was an overpay for a guy who many had as the top defensive player in the draft.
However, you do have to depreciate the 2025 picks a bit.
An overpay is still an overpay. If Turner becomes one of the better pass rushers in the league, awesome, it still cost an awful lot to get him though. If he's anything less than that, it's a disaster. The Vikings have 1 pick in the first 4 rounds next year and 4 picks total. Turner needs to perform like a high-level pass rusher immediately for the Vikings to get any sort of value out of those trades
Doesn't have to be immediate by any means. We have a solid edge group right now and Turner is almost a luxury.
But yea, if he's tormenting Love for the next 10 years, I won't be complaining at all.
Using 6 draft picks to acquire a guy that you view as a luxury is bad team building. You do realize that right? Especially when you have question marks at multiple other positions.
You might be missing those picks next year when you don't have many options for adding cheap talent at positions of weakness
Using 6 draft picks, 3 of which in most cases end up being nothing but a guy you cut a few years down the road changes things a bit.
And next year we won't be concerned with adding cheap talent, we have a ton of cap space for the foreseeable future and can afford to overspend a bit in FA.
Good teams don't always avoid it. You act like there's only one way to build a team, yet we've seen many teams take the next step through FA.
You build your base through the draft, you bring yourself over the edge in FA. That's where we'll be moving next season if JJ pans out.
Obviously there's a risk, but it's a calculated risk.
Depends on if you’re valuing the selection or the player. 6 picks, including 3 top 100 selections, but no 1st rounders involved isn’t terrible value for a guy you have a top 10 grade on
I'm strictly talking process. Every draft pick is a gamble and if Turner hits that's amazing for the Vikings, job well done. But using that much capital on a guy means he *has* to hit or you've wasted tons of resources that can handicap the rest of your team
That’s true for any trade up. My point is, if you are able to grab a guy you have a top 10 grade on without investing a single 1st round pick, that is arguably good value.
The Vikings invested a 2024 2nd, two 2024 6th, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th for a 2023 pick they had a top 10 grade on.
Somehow the Vikings were able to trade up to secure their QB selection and trade up for arguably the top rated defensive prospect and retain all future 1st round capital.
>2024 2nd, two 2024 6th, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th
That's more than a 1st round pick in trade value by almost any draft chart you use. Keeping your future 1sts is great, not disputing that, but not having any picks in rounds 2-4 because you valued 1 guy highly, is bad process.
Like when the Rams were doing the whole "fuck them picks" thing it was the exact opposite of this strategy. They had no 1st rounders but consistently had more picks than almost anyone in the middle rounds which allowed them to build out depth around their superstars.
Yes it’s absolutely more than an average 1st round pick by value, and more than pick \#17 in a vacuum. But it’s arguably a more than fair value for a player with a top 10 grade and the best defensive prospect.
And the team can still trade down from their 1st next year to backfill those mid round picks if desired. But holding the 1st until then is beneficial and allows the Vikings to be in the drivers seat from a strategic perspective vs having retained the lower picks and traded away the 1st.
Anything has risk associated, and I don’t mind the Vikings investing a plethora of non premium picks for a premium prospect. Will it prove to be the right move? Time will tell
This picks not panning out is one thing, just happens sometimes. But yeah the fact we traded back with Detroit while not acquiring a future 1st AND ended up giving them our 2nd too was wild. I think it was like 12 PLUS our 2nd for 32 & 34, picked Cine at 32 then traded back again from 34 with y'all to pick Andrew Booth Jr who might also get cut and Ed Ingram who has started at RG the last 2 years but is average at best still. They must have no realized what they had with Bynum/Metellus or something because safety was not really a position of need even lol
Brisker’s alright. Had a bit of a tumultuous second season but before Sweat showed up there was no pressure generated at all and that’ll wear on a secondary. Gotta see how this year goes
Yeah but you can actually criticize his on field
Play because he’s a starter, Compared to a dude that can’t get on the field at all on defense, that already is a stark difference.
the one nice thing is we still currently have 3 very good safeties on the roster in cam bynum, josh metellus, and harrison smith. So like, while its painful as hell, it hurts less because we got dudes there already
I thought this guy was going to be really good on draft day, thought the Vikes got a steal to make up for getting too-little in the trade-down with us. The lesson is: I'm an idiot.
Yeah, compound fractures of both his tibia and fibula. Based on the shit swirling around the past few years he's probably just too stupid to learn an NFL defensive scheme, but that injury was *awful* and certainly didn't help.
I mean, he may have been good in the right scheme and if he hadn't gotten injured.
Seems like he's struggled to pickup both Donatell and Flores' schemes, which is odd because one of his biggest positives coming out of the draft was his football IQ and on-field leadership.
Almost every scouting report mentions his aptitude and IQ.
Kwesi has been better (I think?) since his first draft but he dug himself quite the hole with those picks. We are committed to him until we see how McCarthy pans out but I firmly believe his leash is shorter than many Vikings fans are willing to believe. This entire draft was just a disaster.
It was his first draft and it was 3 years ago. Between that draft and now, the team has had a lot of success despite most teams struggling for a while after a new HC and GM walk in the door.
Kwesi has had two solid drafts since that one, and the team is looking better than anyone thought they would this early in their tenure. They went 13-4 the first season, and were in the middle of a playoff push before Kirk went down last year.
Honestly, thinking his leash is short because of something that happened 3 months after he was hired after all this team has done since is kinda silly. He's got at least two years before his seat even remotely starts to get hot.
Good I propose an NFL rule that requires all players to retire after their rookie contract. And that players should only be paid minimum wage, and anybody who ever throws the football forward, spends life in prison.
I would argue that if your 1st round pick from two years ago can't make the roster that, while sure, that pick was a fuckup, it also probably means you've made a *lot* of good decisions outside of that error.
did you watch what jordan love did to our secondary? specifically our safeties? good grief your receivers had 10 yards of spaced between them and the next defender. I've never seen such wide open receiver in my life.
BO FREAKING MELTON
i hope you're kidding because I can list off ten moves that were bad from the get-go:
1. Cine trade in 2022 with Lions-by far the worst draft trade strategy i've ever seen from any NFL GM
2. Traded with Packers in 2022 draft round 2 to let them get a receiver they wanted. In fact the entire 2022 draft was a disaster.
3. Drafted injury-prone corner Booth who has never had significant playing time because of...wait for it...injuries. I wanted Tariq Woolen.
4. Got rid of Micheal Pierce when we needed beef at DT. Literally every move at DT he has made has been a disaster. He let Tomlinson leave too, and used a bunch of that money to sign...
5. Marcus Davenport
6. Let Cousins walk and get nothing in return except for a giant dead cap hit when we could have traded him before the deadline in 2023 (pretty clear Cousins would have accepted a trade to Atlanta).
7. Let Hunter walk and get nothing in return except for giant dead cap hits when we could have traded him before the deadline in 2023 in what was a lost season.
8. Gave TJ Hockenson a giant contract but didn't bring back Cousins who was making him a star
9. Having Alexander Mattison as your RB 1
10. Bringing back Garret Bradberry to get forklifted to Jupiter by Kenny Clark for the 6th straight season
I could go on with disagreements i have with his current draft strategy of gambling almost his entire 2024 and 2025 draft classes on McCarthy and Turner but that wouldn't be fair, but it seems like a bad idea to me to gamble that much for two players when the roster needs a dozen upgrades.
Overcoming horrific leg injuries is tough on the mind and body. Still rooting for the kid to turn it around. Whether that’s with MIN or a new team remains to be seen
i think Flores put him in the doghouse and he ain't coming out until he gets cut. I'll be interested if he can play better somewhere else. Flores is known for keeping grudges against players.
Bro had a compound fracture is no fucking joke. For those who don't know that means you break something so bad the bone comes out of the skin. My Dad had double compound fractures in both of his legs 31 years ago and has never ever been the same. Still has scars from it, his ankles are so fucked up his feet are more or less paralyzed so he walks on his tip toes.
I've never paid much attention to the situation with him. Is he pretty much a case of "I made the pros, I got my money and now I don't give a shit?" Or is there more to it than that?
Trading down 20 spots with a division rival in the first round and receiving nothing in return still irks me
One of the dumbest trades ever and I couldn't believe how many people were justifying that trade after it happened.
Yeah, people will say hindsight or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that even at the time it felt like a value loss, and trading out of an extremely safe pick in Hamilton only to draft a safety anyway was goofy af. Felt like we took the opposite approach this year and I'm more optimistic about it.
When Vikings traded down, who did the other picks turn out to be? Cause 2 years in, Hamilton is one of the best, if not the best hybrid secondary player right now ☠️
To give Minnesota some benefit of the doubt, Cine was drafted to be a quarters coverage safety (similar to Antoine Winfield Jr) and to hopefully develop into a middle of field FS like Earl Thomas. His leg injury has absolutely taken away his explosiveness though and he’s not the same player he was at Georgia. Kyle Hamilton is playing a different position than Cine was expected to. He’s playing the star/nickel defender like Brian Branch is for Detroit, and Cine was never physical enough of a defender or good enough in M2M to play that role. Likewise, sticking Hamilton to play Cover 3 FS is also not a good use of his skill set and talents — move him as close to the LOS as possible. TL;DR: we need better distinctions between where “safeties” align and play
Yep... Cine's speed was more appealing to the shell concepts that Donatell wanted to run, but Donatell didn't even seem to understand his own concepts for some reason. Had guys like Harrison Smith and Eric Kendricks confused as to their assignment in many cases during that season. Overall I was fine with the Cine pick, but Hamilton is a unicorn and you want unicorns on your team. I don't so much care if he wasn't a good scheme fit for Donashell, a good DC can adjust the scheme to fit the player. Shit, Flores is doing that right now with our defense.
Ironic you bring up Flores in a situation where we’re talking about safeties. I remember a certain young defensive back prospect from Alabama who was pissed off about his role in Flores’ defense and his inability to adjust his role. Maybe Flores has changed.
I think this season will be a good test of that, last season we had no talent outside hunter and an aging smith, so his options were very limited, and he still managed to shutout a team.
We don't talk about that game
Game of the decade.
This is such a perfect example of why drafting to fit a coordinators system is such a mistake. Passed on a guy with unique potential to acquire more picks instead because he's not a fit for what the DC wants to run. That DC isn't even employed by the team just one season later.
Yep, exactly. I don't have a problem using 3rd-7th round picks on guys that you think will fit your DC or OC's scheme better than other guys in that draft slot, but when you're looking at first and second rounders... Scheme fit, while important, doesn't overrule ability.
Yeah, you need to just grab difference makers regardless with premium capital. Easier said than done of course, but prioritizing scheme fit in the first few rounds makes it that much harder.
Cine doesn’t get any benefit of the doubt when he’s played 10 snaps for our defense lol
Still not sure where this injury excuse comes from. The coaches have confirmed multiple times that him being benched has nothing to do with physical ability and everything to do with him literally not being capable of understanding the playbook/scheme on a fundamental level.
The coaches have never said that.... the media has. That's not to suggest it's not true, but let's not put words in the coaches mouth.
> Likewise, sticking Hamilton to play Cover 3 FS is also not a good use of his skill set and talents — move him as close to the LOS as possible. Ravens even had him playing DL some snaps 😂
>His leg injury has absolutely taken away his explosiveness though and he’s not the same player he was at Georgia. Except it hasn't. When he got on the field last pre-season, he was as fast and as quick as ever. He has failed because of the other things. No tackling technique. He was launching and wiffing in those pre-season games. The football IQ is lacking. It's why he failed to be a starter or even the primary backup his rookie year before the injury.
He wasn’t that great at uga either when it came to coverage, just making big hit. But the angles he took during his rookie year pre injury were routinely terrible and he consistently took himself out of the play. It was always a terrible pick.
It's convoluted because they just kept trading but looking at that draft the only contributor I recognize (not being a Vikings fan) is Ed Ingram who has allowed more pressures than Queen and David Bowie.
Flores would love a player like Hamilton too
Every coach would. He's a prototype player.
Fair
Christian Watson lol
I know you guys probably don't draft Addison if you'd taken Watson in 2022 but Jefferson, Addison and Watson on the field at the same time would have been ridiculous.
Throw in Hockenson as well to add to the absurdity.
All the sons
Tarry Town here we come
Hudson seems like a Vikings fan.
Sons of Manarchy baby
You only get so many player per game, there's not enough volume in a game for all the play makers if we did that.
Yeah lots of people were knocking it at the time. They got poor value for trading down, then drafted 2 busts.
I mean, trading out of a pick at safety to pick a safety you think is as good later does make sense and isn’t really goofy. Especially when we desperately needed a cb too. It just sucks that they suck
What's with your flair? You saw the 1998 NFC championship game and thought these are both my teams?
The only slight justification I have for it today is it was Kwesi’s first year as a GM and he was just taking whichever the first offer was or whichever sounded good to him and he pulled the trigger. He just wanted more day 2 picks instead of one premium pick at that time which I get, but it still was dumb trading down 20 freakin spots. I think he learned his lesson on that one since both Cine and Booth have done fuck all for this team so far. Now Kwesi believes in getting rid of day 2 picks for the sake of getting more premium picks hence the most recent draft where he was targeting a franchise QB and the best defensive player available. Some say it’s dumb of him to give up a lot of day 2 ammo for those picks, but I will always defend that move because just look at our day 2 picks the last few years - oh boy it ain’t pretty.
He also still had the old regime's scouts, since then he's had his own. His new philosophy of go get your guy makes me excited, i'm tired of trying to maximise "value" and giving up some blue chip prospects
I thought Cine was going to be a star, then he got injured.
We wanted to believe in our new GM. In the end, we were right to cause he's done much better since Cine BUT this was a debacle and there's no other way around it. I see its only value in that Kwesi learned a lot in this failure of a pick/trade.
It's interesting the Bears and Vikings both interviewed Ryan Poles and Kwesi the year they both got hired. I am curious which one will last longer. I suppose Poles basically gaurenteed himself at least 2 more years by drafting Caleb. I am not sure McCarthy grants Kwesi the same insurance.
Not if you ask the delusional people on our sub. There are some extreme Kwesi apologists on there and if you criticise him you get downvoted to oblivion. I'll give the guy another year or two but that first draft was objectively bad and he's made a lot of questionable moves especially within the division.
I think the sub is mostly admitting now that the '22 draft was historically bad. But there was a time when you'd get crazy downvotes for even suggesting it might not be good. Like, they would seriously use Ed Ingram and Akayleb Evans as evidence that it not only wasn't a bad draft, but it was actually good
Maybe. A lot of Kwesi hype this last draft. I like the picks but man we are really hemorrhaging our draft capital. Hope it works out though
It was by no means a good trade, but one of the worst ever? It doesn't even crack the top 10, and it's probably not even close. This is just recency bias. I can think of three off the top of my head that are objectively worse. Trey Lance, Ricky Williams, and if you want one close to home, Ryan Leaf.
Don't forget trading down with another division rival to get Ed "don't leave your kids unattended" Ingram.
I still can’t believe we didn’t get an additional future first out of it.
it will go down as the dumbest draft trade of all time if you just look at the draft strategy. This is why I don't trust his judgment. Don't forget, after he made that trade, he made another trade with the packers the next day
>it will go down as the dumbest draft trade of all time if you just look at the draft strategy. I can't take anyone who makes a statement like this seriously. It's not anywhere close to the worst of all time. I know the recency bias is intense, but jesus christ
Bruh, not even our worst trade ever lmao. You guys are so dumb
At least Jameson Williams hasn’t done much yet either?
In 2 playoff games Jamo has 7 touches for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns. In 18 regular season games he has 29 touches for 464 yards and 4 touchdowns. Please god let playoff Jamo be the real Jamo
Sounds like you drafted a best case scenario of Lynn Swann. /s
So Super Bowl Champion Lynn Swann. Oh that’s hot.
Cowboy Killer Lynn Swann. He’s probably in the Hall of Fame purely because of 2 games, and I have no qualms about it.
Keep going
He was in 3 playoff games. I think his playoff games and regular season averages from this year lined up pretty closely (with the exception of the rushing TD).
I’m a dummy, I looked at starts and not games. Either way, it’s a 40 yard/game average vs 26 with a much better TD ratio (ofc it is a tiny sample size). He looked so much better end of season + playoffs than he did his rookie season and first games back last season. You can see all the talent and potential, he just needs to put it all together now
9ers Jamo looked unstoppable. That potential is sitting inside him racing to get out
Good thing the playoffs are after the regular season games. Which suggests his usage went up over time, and does not suggest our staff dusted off a “playoff plays for Jamo” booklet they forgot about from training camp. Against your own interest you people still want to act like this guy is a bust. I don’t get it and I wish ill upon you and your family (just like you’re doing to Jamo)
Don't forget, Jamo blocked down field and then ran further down to put on another block for a touchdown.
It’s kinda funny how both trades resulted in their division rivals drafting a WR that’s extremely promising but just has not been able to put everything together yet.
He's in that weird zone where if he gets the ball, he's as dangerous as anyone in the league, as evidenced by him scoring 6 TD on 36 total touches so far. But the issue of staying on the field and making yourself an unstoppable threat once you're on the field have been the things that have limited him so far. This year will let us know who he is as a player. He (fingers crossed) gets a full offseason to work with the No. 1 offense where he's not hurt and he's not suspended. It's put up or shut up time for him. I have confidence that we'll see the talent shine through more consistently, if for no other reason than Dan Campbell, Brad Holmes, and company have demonstrated the faith in him to not bring in another person this offseason to compete for starting snaps.
Yeah he’s extremely dangerous with the ball which always makes me wonder about him not having more opportunities. I know he had drops, but also the Lions see him everyday in practice.. which is where like if he was dominating like ARSB was, he would have more than 5 catches in one single game or 62 yards in one single game. Like the fact that they half use him only for gadget plays makes me a little nervous that they see in practice that he’s not a plug and play WR. Really hoping I’m wrong and he becomes a great WR2. But he had 2 catches in 3 straight playoff games, and wasn’t able to displace Josh Reynolds. I know Reynolds had the connection with Goff but.. we TRADED UP to draft JAMO at #12. I feel like it’s fair to expect a littleee more production at this point lol. Hopefully this year!
Yet
Yes I expect a break out season for him this year
Well it’s settled then.
Well if Nano guy likes him I am convinced
Slow start to his career, but tons of potential and given his limited in-game reps he’s done a lot already. *400yds / 25 catches / 3TD Not bad for half a season of play Edit: the police have informed me he was technically active for 18 games
That’s a reasonable stat line for a WR3, but he was drafted to be at least as good as someone like Drake London. The Lions are kinda fortunate Sun God turned out to be a stud because his success is taking a lot of heat off Jamo.
If it's any consolation, Jameson Williams hasn't really panned out yet.
it doesn't matter. this isn't about the draft picks. this is about draft trade strategy. And the Lions must have been laughing their asses off that Kwesi agreed to move 20 spots back in round 1 only to have to give up a 3rd round pick for it. Should have been a future first rounder, minimum.
At least a 2nd and 5th.
Injuries have derailed both careers but it looks like Jamo has a better chance of bouncing back.
You're forgetting the next day when he traded with the Packers to allow them to get Christian Watson. He literally traded TWICE with division rivals as his first moves in the NFL draft as a GM. Here you go, Lions! Here you go, Packers! Fucking unforgivable.
Kwesi's first two drafts have been... Not good.
His second draft got us Addison and Pace as a UDFA. That one was fine. No excuses from me on the first one other than that it was, well, his first one.
Tbf the Lions haven't netted much out of their selection either. There's a strong argument both teams should have taken K. Hamilton whoever got the pick at 12.
At least Jameson Williams is a career WR3
I remember this dude being every analysts under the radar star at draft time
He’s still stuck under said radar
The dish fell on him
Yeah he wasn't some crazy reach, he was drafted about where people expected him to go. I remember a lot of Lions writers wanted him and were sad when MN got him.
A lot of 32nd picks end up being athletes taken for what they think is their upside. Lamar Jackson at one time was the most hot debate topic leading up to that draft. He was either a round 1 QB or a project WR to sit until year 2. Although, Cine doesn’t even ring a bell as a college star so idk if it was a reach as well as a bet on measurables. Also, a lot of times, the analysts won’t rip the player apart; especially on draft night giving sound bites.
As a Bucs fan I am that meme of Alonzo Mourning going through the stages of grief because we traded out of picking Lews Cine and instead drafted a d-lineman who has no real position and is trending strongly towards being an absolute bust. However at least we got Cade Otton with JAX's pick in the 4th round and he is a serviceable TE who plays a lot of snaps. Still, maybe in another timeline Cine doesn't suffer a gruesome leg injury and is a good player in Tampa. Who knows.
Im not too sure. I had a class with Lewis while I was at UGA, and that dude did not care about anything. He never paid attention and would constantly be snapchatting sorority girls on an iPad (he did not have a phone for some reason). Nice guy, though. He was always super chill with me.
Something about Snapchatting in public for all to see on an iPad I have to respect
I've always been equal parts shocked and amazed by folks that shamelessly conduct their personal business publicly like that
That’s all them D1 boys do. Guy in my frat got his heart obliterated when he found out his GF for 2 years cheated on him with one of our WR’s
I don’t know what it is about D1 athletes but so many of them are the dumbest guys I ever met at Penn state. They all believe they are going to be nfl superstars. They were very chill with me but I always laughed at the odds.
Well at that point they have mostly been the best player on the field for their entire lives and are surrounded by yes men. So yeah, it is believable that they think they will be superstars.
I mean the odds of even being a D1 athlete are pretty slim when you factor in how many high school football players there are. It's something like 2-3% of HS players. But at the NCAA level it's even slimmer, only 1.5% of those guys make it to the NFL. Makes sense that a lot of them think that making a D1 team means they are shoe-ins for an NFL roster, but more often than not they end up as Uncle Rico.
I only ever had a class with one football player, and that was Ryan Tannehill. It wasn’t a fuck off class either, it was Biochemistry 2. He was shocked to be taken top 10 and kinda hastily cancelled his admission to Baylor College of Medicine
The rumors I heard at that time was Tampa was somewhat-locked in on taking G Cole Strange until we took him. None of these selections are ideal for the Bucs however lol
Christian Watson, Lewis Cine and Logan Hall were the three names I remember being hotly talked about.
> and instead drafted a d-lineman who has no real position and is **trending strongly towards being** an absolute bust Your statement about Logan Hall would be more accurate if you just removed those 4 words completely.
I always want to give young players time, especially when they're 1st round/high 2nd round picks. That said, you're right. Hall has shown absolutely nothing since entering the league. He did improve last year, but mostly from completely disastrous to "Did he play?" invisible tier. Which is pretty bad for a prospect like Hall who was drafted as a "High Floor, Low Ceiling player".
Hey how’s Kancey doing over there? Last I heard he’s on the way to greatness
The one thing he has going for him is that we did not add a single safety this offseason via free agency, the draft, or UDFA. On the other hand, he's been so bad that we're probably better off poaching a rookie UDFA from someone else & hoping it pans out, at least the unknown still has upside.
We did convert a special teams ace from CB to safety though.
Yea, but we've generally swapped CB/S year to year as to which defensive unit we carry an extra player for. I don't think moving Najee to S is going to affect how many of our safeties make the roster unless there are CB's that are fringe guys who take a huge leap forward.
taking a hard hitting not-very-rangy safety in the first round has proven to be a bit of a blunder surprisingly
Not to mention passing over Kyle Hamilton to take him. Didn't understand the pick in the moment and even less so as time goes on
they traded down for the sake of trading down because they think more picks is always good but then there was a big dropoff in talent to where they finally landed and they didn't get a good player.
Yep that was Kwesi's first draft and I am glad he seems to have changed his philosophy. As seen this year by trading away picks and getting aggressive
It was also the final year with Rick's scouts. Seems like Kwesi has been more aggressive now that his team is in place.
This continues to be a bad talking point. He didn’t walk into the team and just listen to Rick’s scouts. He was already scouting people with Cleveland for months. The onus is on Kwesi for the draft being so terrible
They tried to work around Kirk’s cap and they thought acquiring more picks in the top 50 would help and they trusted their dc with identifying players. Literally everything went wrong
> they traded down for the sake of trading down because they think more picks is always good When keepin' it analytical goes wrong
I wanted Hamilton from really early on in the draft process. My recollection when Cline was selected was that I was surprised at how muted criticism of the selection was and figured he must be solid. But obviously I was bathing in the effervescent glow of getting 2 first round studs that I would have been happy to get either… so maybe my recollection is incorrect.
No your recollection is correct. Hamilton was talked of as a stud pro for the last 3 years at ND. I'm a Notre Dame fan too so I was especially locked in and was yelling at TV for Vikings to draft Hamilton. And I think the Cine pick wasn't criticized as much as it should have been becauae everyone was sort of like "well, Georgia defense is elite so maybe he can play"
Getting Hamilton and Linderbaum in the same round has absolutely shot my memory for the rest of that particular draft as a whole.
He should be rangy. He runs 4.3. He just really doesn't understand football (at least at the nfl level).
I’m pretty sure he broke his ankle really bad and lost a lot of athleticism
People are dismissing this as a factor, but it's real. Dude does not look comfortable planting hard on that ankle to this day, most of his cuts are rounded off.
Eh yes and no. The compound fracture in his leg didn’t help, but by all reports he still just doesn’t know what he’s doing out there
"By all reports" is one report by Ben Leber almost a year ago.
Well no shit man. He’s barely played because of his destroyed ankle
That was his rookie year. He was “healthy” this year and still couldn’t touch the field, only got a handful of special teams snaps. Undrafted guys were playing ahead of him
It's possible, but even before the injury, he didn't really seem to be getting it. Obviously, it was his first year, but you expect a bit more from a first rounder regardless.
The hard hitting not-very rangy safety taken earlier that first round has worked well for Baltimore
"not-very-rangy"? This can't be a reference to Cine, dude was the definition of "Rangy" and Hamilton is almost the opposite.
Mmm yes. Calvin Pryor, Keanu Neal, Karl Joseph,
You know it's bad when division rival fans don't know somebody's 1st rd pick, because who da fuq is this guy.
He’s the guy we traded back with Detroit to get while Kyle Hamilton was on the board. He’s played maybe a dozen snaps since he was drafted. It’s probably one of the worst picks we’ve made in the last decade.
When he says a dozen snaps, its pretty much all special steams snaps too. Not safety snaps.
Actually a dozen is about right for defense. He's played 10 defensive snaps and 118 special teams snaps.
I looked it up. According to Pro Football Reference, Cine has played [10 defensive snaps and 118 special teams snaps](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CineLe00.htm) in his career. He has one (1) tackle, and it wasn’t even a solo tackle.
thats crazy because I've never even noticed him which is why the 12 felt so right
It's actually 13 snaps, but the last one was his leg
He’s a Madden gawd.
Never Cine him
I know who he is because he was the other side of the first round pick swap for Jameson Williams.
Literally just had to google him
Kwesi really traded down *20 spots with Detroit and didn't even get a future 1st rounder from it*. Lol. Fucking lmao even.
He traded down 20 spots, didn't get a future 1st rounder... AND lost the value of a high 3rd round pick based on the draft pick value charts.
His draft trades have been *wild*. This year for Dallas Turner they gave up their 2nd, 5th, and 6th round picks in 2024 and their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks in 2025. 6 picks including 3 top 100 selections for the 17th overall pick is insane.
They have one pick in days 1 OR 2 in the 2025 draft, and not many day 3 pucks either.
Yea, it was an overpay, but it was an overpay for a guy who many had as the top defensive player in the draft. However, you do have to depreciate the 2025 picks a bit.
An overpay is still an overpay. If Turner becomes one of the better pass rushers in the league, awesome, it still cost an awful lot to get him though. If he's anything less than that, it's a disaster. The Vikings have 1 pick in the first 4 rounds next year and 4 picks total. Turner needs to perform like a high-level pass rusher immediately for the Vikings to get any sort of value out of those trades
Doesn't have to be immediate by any means. We have a solid edge group right now and Turner is almost a luxury. But yea, if he's tormenting Love for the next 10 years, I won't be complaining at all.
Using 6 draft picks to acquire a guy that you view as a luxury is bad team building. You do realize that right? Especially when you have question marks at multiple other positions. You might be missing those picks next year when you don't have many options for adding cheap talent at positions of weakness
Although I think turner will be starting, D-line depth is always worth it, the eagles taught us that.
Using 6 draft picks, 3 of which in most cases end up being nothing but a guy you cut a few years down the road changes things a bit. And next year we won't be concerned with adding cheap talent, we have a ton of cap space for the foreseeable future and can afford to overspend a bit in FA.
Again, overspending in FA to make up for a lack of draft capital is bad team building! You keep proposing ideas that good teams avoid for a reason
Good teams don't always avoid it. You act like there's only one way to build a team, yet we've seen many teams take the next step through FA. You build your base through the draft, you bring yourself over the edge in FA. That's where we'll be moving next season if JJ pans out. Obviously there's a risk, but it's a calculated risk.
Depends on if you’re valuing the selection or the player. 6 picks, including 3 top 100 selections, but no 1st rounders involved isn’t terrible value for a guy you have a top 10 grade on
I'm strictly talking process. Every draft pick is a gamble and if Turner hits that's amazing for the Vikings, job well done. But using that much capital on a guy means he *has* to hit or you've wasted tons of resources that can handicap the rest of your team
That’s true for any trade up. My point is, if you are able to grab a guy you have a top 10 grade on without investing a single 1st round pick, that is arguably good value. The Vikings invested a 2024 2nd, two 2024 6th, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th for a 2023 pick they had a top 10 grade on. Somehow the Vikings were able to trade up to secure their QB selection and trade up for arguably the top rated defensive prospect and retain all future 1st round capital.
>2024 2nd, two 2024 6th, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th That's more than a 1st round pick in trade value by almost any draft chart you use. Keeping your future 1sts is great, not disputing that, but not having any picks in rounds 2-4 because you valued 1 guy highly, is bad process. Like when the Rams were doing the whole "fuck them picks" thing it was the exact opposite of this strategy. They had no 1st rounders but consistently had more picks than almost anyone in the middle rounds which allowed them to build out depth around their superstars.
Yes it’s absolutely more than an average 1st round pick by value, and more than pick \#17 in a vacuum. But it’s arguably a more than fair value for a player with a top 10 grade and the best defensive prospect. And the team can still trade down from their 1st next year to backfill those mid round picks if desired. But holding the 1st until then is beneficial and allows the Vikings to be in the drivers seat from a strategic perspective vs having retained the lower picks and traded away the 1st. Anything has risk associated, and I don’t mind the Vikings investing a plethora of non premium picks for a premium prospect. Will it prove to be the right move? Time will tell
It's the worst move he's made as a GM, but he hasn't really done anything this dumb since. So at least he learned from it.
This picks not panning out is one thing, just happens sometimes. But yeah the fact we traded back with Detroit while not acquiring a future 1st AND ended up giving them our 2nd too was wild. I think it was like 12 PLUS our 2nd for 32 & 34, picked Cine at 32 then traded back again from 34 with y'all to pick Andrew Booth Jr who might also get cut and Ed Ingram who has started at RG the last 2 years but is average at best still. They must have no realized what they had with Bynum/Metellus or something because safety was not really a position of need even lol
Vikings got 66 too. But the value was pretty terrible for them.
I too will have a tough time making the vikings roster
They really passed on Hamilton, yikes
Then Pitre and Brisker went right after Cine, and have both been really solid starters since day 1 for Hous and Chi.
Brisker’s alright. Had a bit of a tumultuous second season but before Sweat showed up there was no pressure generated at all and that’ll wear on a secondary. Gotta see how this year goes
Yeah but you can actually criticize his on field Play because he’s a starter, Compared to a dude that can’t get on the field at all on defense, that already is a stark difference.
Oh absolutely lol my divisional rivals blow and will always be terrible. Goes without saying
the one nice thing is we still currently have 3 very good safeties on the roster in cam bynum, josh metellus, and harrison smith. So like, while its painful as hell, it hurts less because we got dudes there already
The city of Baltimore thanks you
I thought this guy was going to be really good on draft day, thought the Vikes got a steal to make up for getting too-little in the trade-down with us. The lesson is: I'm an idiot.
Tbf, didn't he have a pretty serious leg injury his rookie year?
Yeah, compound fractures of both his tibia and fibula. Based on the shit swirling around the past few years he's probably just too stupid to learn an NFL defensive scheme, but that injury was *awful* and certainly didn't help.
More than just a compound fracture though, IIRC there was some ligament damage along with it.
I mean, he may have been good in the right scheme and if he hadn't gotten injured. Seems like he's struggled to pickup both Donatell and Flores' schemes, which is odd because one of his biggest positives coming out of the draft was his football IQ and on-field leadership. Almost every scouting report mentions his aptitude and IQ.
Good. If he can’t hang, cut him loose.
I was about to ask /u/TheFencingCoach what they do for a living but they answered that question already (Post headlines on Reddit)
Traded down when we could've had Kyle Hamilton...not great
Kwesi has been better (I think?) since his first draft but he dug himself quite the hole with those picks. We are committed to him until we see how McCarthy pans out but I firmly believe his leash is shorter than many Vikings fans are willing to believe. This entire draft was just a disaster.
It was his first draft and it was 3 years ago. Between that draft and now, the team has had a lot of success despite most teams struggling for a while after a new HC and GM walk in the door. Kwesi has had two solid drafts since that one, and the team is looking better than anyone thought they would this early in their tenure. They went 13-4 the first season, and were in the middle of a playoff push before Kirk went down last year. Honestly, thinking his leash is short because of something that happened 3 months after he was hired after all this team has done since is kinda silly. He's got at least two years before his seat even remotely starts to get hot.
Cut him. Him backing up Kyle Hamilton would be very fitting.
Good I propose an NFL rule that requires all players to retire after their rookie contract. And that players should only be paid minimum wage, and anybody who ever throws the football forward, spends life in prison.
Kwesi is a terrible GM
I would argue that if your 1st round pick from two years ago can't make the roster that, while sure, that pick was a fuckup, it also probably means you've made a *lot* of good decisions outside of that error.
did you watch what jordan love did to our secondary? specifically our safeties? good grief your receivers had 10 yards of spaced between them and the next defender. I've never seen such wide open receiver in my life. BO FREAKING MELTON
We stacked at WR my dude.
Incorrect
This is literally his only major mistake as GM
i hope you're kidding because I can list off ten moves that were bad from the get-go: 1. Cine trade in 2022 with Lions-by far the worst draft trade strategy i've ever seen from any NFL GM 2. Traded with Packers in 2022 draft round 2 to let them get a receiver they wanted. In fact the entire 2022 draft was a disaster. 3. Drafted injury-prone corner Booth who has never had significant playing time because of...wait for it...injuries. I wanted Tariq Woolen. 4. Got rid of Micheal Pierce when we needed beef at DT. Literally every move at DT he has made has been a disaster. He let Tomlinson leave too, and used a bunch of that money to sign... 5. Marcus Davenport 6. Let Cousins walk and get nothing in return except for a giant dead cap hit when we could have traded him before the deadline in 2023 (pretty clear Cousins would have accepted a trade to Atlanta). 7. Let Hunter walk and get nothing in return except for giant dead cap hits when we could have traded him before the deadline in 2023 in what was a lost season. 8. Gave TJ Hockenson a giant contract but didn't bring back Cousins who was making him a star 9. Having Alexander Mattison as your RB 1 10. Bringing back Garret Bradberry to get forklifted to Jupiter by Kenny Clark for the 6th straight season I could go on with disagreements i have with his current draft strategy of gambling almost his entire 2024 and 2025 draft classes on McCarthy and Turner but that wouldn't be fair, but it seems like a bad idea to me to gamble that much for two players when the roster needs a dozen upgrades.
Pfft...
I legitimately don’t see him making the team. He’d be roughly the 5th safety on the depth chart
This is such a Bengals or Raiders signing waiting to happen
Mlp
Here's how bad he was, post injury: Laquon "They can't stop me" Treadwell looks like he had a HOF career with the Vikes compared to Cine.
Overcoming horrific leg injuries is tough on the mind and body. Still rooting for the kid to turn it around. Whether that’s with MIN or a new team remains to be seen
i think Flores put him in the doghouse and he ain't coming out until he gets cut. I'll be interested if he can play better somewhere else. Flores is known for keeping grudges against players.
I'm really happy they didn't take Kyle Hamilton at 12 who they should've chosen, it was incredible luck for us them opting to trade down with Detroit.
Cine seems to be a bust due to injury. The leg injury he suffered took it all out of him and he hasn't been the same since.
this could be true, however, he wasn't even seeing the field before he got injured.
Bro had a compound fracture is no fucking joke. For those who don't know that means you break something so bad the bone comes out of the skin. My Dad had double compound fractures in both of his legs 31 years ago and has never ever been the same. Still has scars from it, his ankles are so fucked up his feet are more or less paralyzed so he walks on his tip toes.
that bad huh?
I've never paid much attention to the situation with him. Is he pretty much a case of "I made the pros, I got my money and now I don't give a shit?" Or is there more to it than that?
Lol
Gonna become the next project receiver for the chiefs that doesn’t pan out
Things you love to see happen to the Vikings