While it's still too soon to render final judgment on decisions the Vikings made in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft, things are looking worse and sometimes really worse with each passing week.
This came to mind — again — while watching replays of the Ravens-Colts and Bengals-Rams games from last week.
To recap last year's first round, Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah traded down from No. 12 to 32 and selected safety Lewis Cine. Cine has no career starts, only two snaps on defense and is the Vikings' No. 5 safety behind Theo Jackson, a sixth-round pick of the Titans last year.
The Ravens, meanwhile, drafted safety Kyle Hamilton 14th. The Bengals drafted safety Daxton Hill 31st. Week 3 saw these two gentlemen post a combined 17 tackles, four for losses, a pass defense, and four sacks while playing 100% of 139 defensive snaps. Hamilton had three sacks and was blitzing his way to a fourth before batting down a pass.
The Vikings blitzed Justin Herbert on 43 of his 50 dropbacks, a whopping 86%, in Week 3. They registered one sack and eight pressures while a healthy Cine played only special teams.
Twenty players came off the board after the Vikings traded down in 2022. Those players now have 245 starts (12.3 per player), including 12 in the playoffs and two in the Super Bowl for the defending champion Chiefs.
Of those 20 players, 13 have started every game this season, and 17 have started at least one game. Jameson Williams, taken by Detroit with the 12th overall pick they got from the Vikings, was serving a gambling suspension. Houston guard Kenyon Green (15th overall) is on injured reserve. And Buffalo cornerback Kaiir Elam (23rd) lost his job to Christian Benford, a sixth-round pick of the Bills last year.
Week 2 also was another nose-punch reminder of what could have been when Philadelphia defensive tackle Jordan Davis — selected 13th overall last year — terrorized the Vikings' embattled interior offensive linemen in prime time.
