Last week, the Steelers added Terrell Edmunds back into the fold by signing him to a one-year deal. But that move won't preclude the Steelers from looking at the safety position in the NFL Draft. If that's the direction they go, Lewis Cine might be the ideal addition while staying home with the 20th overall pick.
Kevin Colbert: "Anything we do in free agency will not preclude us from drafting a player at that position." Hint-hint, signing Terrell Edmunds wouldn't eliminate them from a safety early. #Steelers
— Christopher Carter (@CarterCritiques) April 25, 2022
I previewed the top safeties of the 2021 NFL Draft class with last week's Carter's Classroom, with Kyle Hamilton as the clear top choice, but one the Steelers would have to trade up to get. Cine's a highly athletic safety who will most likely be available when the Steelers' natural pick comes around. His skillset and build would be an ideal addition to the Steelers' defense both in 2022 and as a potential long term partner for Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Daxton Hill would also be an ideal addition to the Steelers' secondary, but their skillsets, while both versatile, are very different in how they would benefit the defense. Hill is shorter by two inches and lighter by eight pounds while being a better defensive back in slot coverage who's displayed better ball skills. Over three seasons with Michigan, Hill made four interceptions and broke up 15 passes. Cine made two interceptions with nine pass breakups over three seasons. A portion of those breakups also came on pass rush reps where he was charging the quarterback, while the large majority of breakups for Hill were while in coverage.
But while Hill is a willing tackler, Cine is a much better at it and has the frame to take on bigger runners and tight ends. Also, Cine's athletic profile shows he's a more explosive option with his broad jump being ten inches farther than Hill's while also having a better vertical leap. Add that to his size advantage and Cine looks like a better safety option to help out in the box:
RAS.FOOTBALL
Daxton Hill and Lewis Cine compared by their athletic profiles.
Edmunds has been a solid athlete for the Steelers who's helped cover tight ends and play various roles in the secondary to help Fitzpatrick focus on being a single-high safety playing deep zone coverage. Cine projects to be a prospect who can provide similar help, as displayed in the previous Carter's Classroom with a breakup while covering a tight end against Clemson.
But Cine also has range to cover receivers all around the field. One factor that played into his lack of passes defensed and interceptions is because of how much talent was in front of him at Georgia with superstar defensive linemen like Travon Walker, Jordan Davis, and Devonte Wyatt, as well as linebackers Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker and Channing Tindall, all who look to be picked anywhere between the first and third rounds of this NFL Draft.
When Cine was challenged, he wasn't uncomfortable in running with receivers on deeper routes. Watch how he played this dep ball from off-coverage, and how he pinned his man to the sideline while the ball was in the air from Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker:
Cine not only has the potential to be a good coverage option on various routes, but he's also displayed a familiarity with the textbook approaches and techniques to cover various options on the route tree.
The ability to not only recognize and anticipate routes, but also entire play concepts, is maybe Cine's most underappreciated assets. Whether he plays deep safety or in the box, Cine consistently shows on tape he's a student of the game who can apply film study to live situations and read what an offense is doing. According to Pro Football Focus, Cine played 534 snaps in deep coverage, 155 snaps in the box, 118 snaps in the slot, eleven snaps lined out wide and four snaps at the line of scrimmage in 2021.
Here's a play when Cine had man coverage against a receiver while Alabama appeared to run a quarterback option with Bryce Young. But the play was to get the receiver open in the flat behind Georgia's pass rush. Cine tracked him the entire time and showed his tackle range by stopping what could've been a big play out in open space:
That kind of tackling goes along with Cine's profile of being a big hitter, which is a very good sign that he can both hit with run stopping power and make tackles on faster receivers in open space.
Having safeties who can do both is rare, and with Cine's athletic profile, makes for his true potential to be a very useful asset to the defense. But combine that with Cine's play recognition skills and that makes him one of the best safeties of his class.
Watch this trick play by Tennessee when they tried a fake wide receiver screen that turned into a receiver pass, and how it beat the rest of Georgia's defense. If Cine didn't diagnose the play in time, this would've led to a huge play, and maybe even a touchdown. But Cine showed urgency to start coming up from his deep position, and combined that with patience to diagnose what was developing. Once he got recognized the play, he closed on the sideline, made a good play on the ball and broke up the pass:
If the Steelers were to get Cine, they would get a safety prospect who would be an ideal athlete to fit in the various roles and has displayed a consistent ability to execute assignments all over the field.
Add that to Cine's reputation as a run stuffer who can tackle in space against quicker runners and hit hard against stronger running backs, and Cine could be an ideal option to take on various roles in the Steelers' defense. That's who Edmunds has had to be over the past three years with Fitzpatrick to free up the Steelers' All-Pro safety to be more of a centerfield playmaker and lead the team in interceptions.
If Edmunds being on a one-year deal means he's not long for the Steelers, 2022 would be an ideal season for Cine to learn from the 25-year old veteran while also giving Mike Tomlin and new defensive coordinator Teryl Austin a talented safety trio to disguise coverage looks with and confuse quarterbacks.
