The Vikings kept six safeties a year ago. If they keep six again this year, Cine, McCain and Ward are projected to be battling for two spots. McCain has versatility, having also played cornerback in his 131-game NFL career, and was added last month largely because he played well under Flores years ago in Miami. Ward also has flexibility at cornerback, which Flores has been tinkering with all camp.

In other words, you begin to understand why Cine wasn’t celebrating on Saturday after what was undoubtedly his best three hours as a pro. After all, it’s hard to be happy about a quarterback’s sack when you’re a 24-year-old former first-round pick and you’re on the field with four minutes left in a preseason game to make that sack.

What happens to Cine when cutdown day comes on August 27? Good question, assuming he makes it to cutdown day as a Viking. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah showed a week ago that he is ready to break the stain that was his first draft. He sent second-round cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. to Dallas at a time when the Vikings desperately need reinforcements at cornerback.

And Cine is an even bigger curse for Adofo-Mensah’s 2022 draft. This is only less noticeable because Adofo-Mensah inherited one of the league’s best safety trios from Rick Spielman: Smith, Bynum and Metellus.

When you watch Cine after Saturday’s game, you feel a hint of sadness. Somehow you’re happy that the boy played well, even though everyone will say it was meaningless.

“For me, it was just football,” Cine said. “I was just having fun. I wasn’t thinking too much. I was running around, with my legs under me and working on whatever I needed to work on, just to show myself.”