The Minnesota Vikings invested the No. 11 overall pick into Michigan State cornerback Trae Waynes in last month's NFL Draft. Additionally, the team also signed 36-year-old corner Terence Newman and former Cincinnati Bengals safety Taylor Mays to one year deals. Throw them in with established starters such as Xavier Rhodes and Captain Munnerlyn and this Minnesota secondary looks awfully crowded.
Will Waynes even be able to get on the field in his rookie seasons with so many bodies ahead of him?
"The Vikings are hoping they've got a counterpart to Rhodes: another young, long-levered corner who can reroute receivers off the line and run with them down the field," ESPN Vikings reporter Ben Goessling wrote. "Zimmer already is working with Waynes on some subtle technique changes he believes will help the Michigan State product's quickness, and in an ideal world, the Vikings will be able to put Rhodes and Waynes in man coverage and effectively forget about the guys they're covering. That might be a year away, though, and at the very least, Waynes won't be rushed onto the field."
Goessling currently lists Waynes as the No. 2 left cornerback behind Newman. Of course, that could change with a strong training camp and preseason or an unfortunate injury. Either way, Waynes appears to be locked in an exciting position battle.
"The Vikings have two of the four positions in their defensive backfield locked down with would-be cornerstones (Smith and Rhodes)," Goessling continued. "Waynes could be a third fixture in the defense eventually, but he'll be competing for one of the two spots that should be hotly contested between now and training camp. The battles for the left cornerback spot and the safety job opposite Smith figure to be two of the more intriguing races of the spring and summer. That should be especially true in OTAs and minicamp, when the Vikings might shuffle secondary combinations to evaluate a number of players."
Minnesota finished last season ranked seventh overall in pass defense so Goessling is right to point out that there is no need to rush Waynes' development.
