The Minnesota Vikings will have a chance to clinch the NFC North in the Motor City on Sunday. At 5-7, the Detroit Lions are likely a speed bump for the Vikings on their way to the playoffs. But, as kickoff approaches, one can’t help to wonder if a player on the Detroit sideline could have helped the Vikings become an even better team in the final weeks of the season.
The Vikings had a chance to take Jameson Williams with the 12th-overall pick in this year’s draft. Instead, they chose to trade down with the Lions to eventually select Lewis Cine. Neither player has made much of an impact in their rookie year, but both have an interesting effect that could have made the Vikings a dangerous contender come January.
For Sunday’s game, the story will be focused on Williams. A burner out of Alabama, Williams had teams falling over each other to take him in the draft. Williams could have been a top-10 or a top-five pick had he not torn his ACL in the College Football Playoffs. Still, he was a valuable commodity thanks to his elite speed.
When you look at Williams, he’s exactly what the Vikings need. Justin Jefferson is an absolute force at receiver, but even he has moments where a defense can focus all of its resources against him.
That happened in Week 2 when Darius Slay held Jefferson to 48 yards in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Jefferson was bottled up the following week when the Lions used two and even three defenders to hold him to 14 yards. K.J. Osborn‘s touchdown bailed out the Vikings late in that game, but there have been too many instances where other receivers haven’t stepped up.
Outside of that game, Osborn has been a disappointment, catching just 30 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns this season. While Osborn hinted that his stats were part of a team-first approach in an interview with The Athletic’s Alec Lewis, Pro Football Focus has him graded 97th out of 104 qualifying receivers (min. 27 targets).
The Vikings were also counting on Irv Smith Jr. to take some of the attention off Jefferson, but he succumbed to the injuries that plagued him throughout his career. The Vikings tried to make up for that by trading for T.J. Hockenson, but his yards per reception have been cut in half since coming to Minnesota.
Adam Thielen has been posting modest numbers. His 1.21 yards per route run are the lowest since becoming a full-time receiver in 2016, and his yards per route run have declined every year since posting 2.15 YPRR in 2017. Even worse? He has just five receptions under 20 yards, making him more of a possession threat.
Put it all together, and there’s no threat of anyone getting past the defense outside of Jefferson. That’s where Williams would have come in handy. If the Vikings still owned a 10-2 record after taking him, Williams could be seen as a wild card that could take attention away from Jefferson.
But this is about more than just next season. Williams could have significantly impacted how the Vikings approached this off-season. Sitting at $4.9 million over the salary cap, the Vikings still need to sign Jefferson to a long-term extension and might have to resort to another short-term extension for Kirk Cousins just to get the cap number down.
With cap space at a premium, having a receiver on a rookie deal could have allowed the Vikings to spend money elsewhere, such as on the offensive line or the defense. Minnesota’s cap situation doesn’t just apply to Williams. The Vikings had their choice of several receivers in the draft who could have been effective in this role.
- The Washington Commanders took Jahan Dotson four picks after Williams, and he has had a solid rookie year.
- Treylon Burks went 18th overall and started to find his footing with the Tennessee Titans before his most recent injury.
- The Green Bay Packers took Christian Watson 34th overall, and he has seven touchdowns in his last four games.
There are several other receivers who you could also highlight, but hindsight is always 20/20. Perhaps the Vikings felt their defense needed a playmaker more than their offense did, leading to the decision to trade down and draft Cine.
Knowing what we know now, that’s not a bad decision. The Vikings’ defense currently ranks second in the NFL in yards allowed and is tied with the Chicago Bears with 7.1 net yards allowed per passing attempt. It’s hard to know the exact role Cine would have had in this defense, but it could have added something this current group doesn’t have.
It’s possible that the Vikings saw Cine as a successor to Harrison Smith, who currently is graded 44th among 92 qualifying safeties but is set to make $19.2 million next season. And it’s also possible that the Vikings saw Cine as an upgrade over Camryn Bynum, who has graded 62nd among qualifying safeties.
But maybe Cine was the key to the creativity this defense has been lacking. His relative athletic score of 9.92 suggested that he could play various roles. It’s feasible that we could have Cine in a position other than safety.
Could Cine have played in a coverage linebacker role to take pressure off of Jordan Hicks? Would Cine’s 4.37-second time in the 40-yard dash make him a valuable piece of a blitz package? We currently don’t know these answers, but we could find out as soon as next season.
Even then, it’s fair to question the Vikings’ selection of Cine. Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton was also sitting there with the 12th-overall pick and is currently PFF’s No. 3-overall safety. It’s safe to say if Sauce Gardner didn’t exist, Hamilton would have a strong case to be the rookie of the year.
It’s also fair to question why the Vikings traded down twice to get more picks. Selecting Cine wouldn’t be such a downer if the Vikings had chosen to take Watson with the 34th-overall pick. In this scenario, the front office would have gotten their impact prospect on defense and a player that could not only help the offense now but be a key piece of their future.
Instead, the Vikings traded down with the Packers to select Andrew Booth Jr., who is currently out for the season with a knee injury, and Ed Ingram, who leads the league with 45 pressures allowed.
It could also be that the Vikings just weren’t into this year’s receiver class. The 2023 draft has a handful of intriguing receiver prospects, with TCU’s Quentin Johnston, USC’s Jordan Addison, Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and North Carolina’s Josh Downs leading the way.
None of these prospects carry questions about a small-school pedigree or are coming off of a major injury, which could pave the way for the Vikings to select a pass catcher in next year’s draft.
Of course, the Vikings have more pressing concerns than what will happen next off-season. With a division title on the line, many will look on as Williams takes the field against a team with a strong case to draft him. Much like Watson’s ascent in Green Bay, Williams’ potential in Detroit could give Vikings fans a glimpse of what could have been.
