New Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine is bothered by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers making NFL Draft night promises they didn’t keep.
An NFL team thinking they would take one player and then selecting another at the draft is not uncommon. And players being disappointed they didn’t land with the franchise they hoped to is also a common occurrence after the annual seven-round event. However, Georgia alum Lewis Cine still has a bad taste left in his mouth from his NFL Draft experience last month.
Cine was the final player selected in the first round — pick 32 to the Vikings. Being a first-round pick is still a meaningful milestone for any player. However, in a recent conversation on “The Richard Sherman Podcast” the talented defensive back revealed he was misled by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers heading into April 28 and was given assurances he would be the team’s first selection at No. 27.
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Lewis Cine says Tampa Bay Buccaneers misled him before 2022 NFL Draft
“I had a team at twenty-seven. They know who they are. I aint gonna’ say no names,” Cine said [h/t SI.com]. “It was at twenty-seven. The whole process — if you’re there — we’re gonna pick you. They move down to the first pick of the second round. I’m like, damn, they did me just so dirty.”
The Buccaneers traded out of 27 to pick at 33 on the first night of the draft. The team likely made the calculation that Cine would still be there as they added more assets. Unfortunately for Cine, they calculated wrong and the Vikings saw first-round value in him. On the second day of the draft, Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles explained the team’s decision to trade out of their pick at 27.
“We had a few players at 27 that we targeted,” Bowles said last month. “Moving back to 33, which was the first [pick] today, we had one guy left there. The other ones went off the board, so it wouldn’t have been smart for us to trade back down and lose the guy we wanted.”
If the Vikings play the Bucs in 2022, Cine will certainly have the date circled and a bone to pick.