Harrison Smith
Camryn Bynum
Josh Metellus
Lewis Cine
Jay Ward
Theo Jackson
I can’t cut any of them. In my opinion, each has earned a spot on the 53-man roster. It’s a good thing these roster decisions aren’t mine to make.
Six talented, competent safeties? I remember years in which the Vikings couldn’t put a pair of competent safeties on the field. Throughout the offseason and into training camp, I’ve thought that Theo Jackson was the safety on the outside. Harrison Smith and Camryn Bynum were the starters last season and the projected starters this season. Josh Metellus has worked his way into an important, situational role in defensive coordinator’s Brian Flores’ chameleon-like defense. Lewis Cine was selected in the first round last year to be a cornerstone player. The brutal leg injury in London last season threw a significant pause into his progression. Jay Ward was drafted in the fourth round this year. His positional versatility in college suggested that he’d be perfect in the role that Metellus currently holds. That left Jackson. Smith, Bynum, and Metellus seem to be on the field the most through offseason work and training camp. Cine and Ward are high draft picks of the current regime. Those five safeties feel safe. And five safeties feel like a lot of safeties. Jackson has no shot. Right? I’m not so sure.
I haven’t been to training camp. I’ve only seen the first preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. I’m dependent on the observations of those that are at the practices. From those observations, Cine seems to be the least impressive of the safeties. From my own observations, he played well in the Seahawks game. He made the tackles he needed to make. He made the tackles he was in position to make. If there was any criticism to his play in that game, perhaps he needed to react a bit quicker. That isn’t a surprising expectation for a player in only his second training camp and a player coming back from a brutal injury. To be honest, when Cine was drafted I assumed that he’d unseat Bynum as a starting safety in his first season. I knew that Bynum would be a tough to player to unseat. I watched him play for four seasons at Cal. He’s a very good football player. Cine, however, has the explosive athletic ability to be an excellent football player. His ceiling is much higher than that of Bynum. So far, it hasn’t played out that way. What has played out is that the Vikings now have a very deep, talented safety group.
In today’s pass-heavy NFL, ten defensive backs is the minimum. At ten, the cornerback:safety split is usually 6:4. When the Vikings selected Ward in the fourth round, I initially had the potential position breakdown at 5:4 with him as a bit of both. What’s in a position if a player really has no set position? With the way that the Vikings have been making use of Metellus’ versatility and Ward having a similar skill set, aren’t the Vikings rostering a couple safeties that have slot corner potential? Not only that, Bynum played corner for four years at Cal. The Vikings have three safeties with corner versatility. I’m not sure I want to see any of them routinely on an island with an outside receiver but they can bolster the corner room while being labeled as a safety.
If the Vikings decision-makers decide to keep the ten best defensive backs on the 53-man roster, they may end up keeping only four cornerbacks and six safeties. Four corners? Who knows? I do know that Theo Jackson is doing everything he can to make this a very difficult decision for those decision-makers.
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