A week ago, Harrison Smith coming back for a 15th season with the Vikings felt like the kind of move most fans could get behind without much debate. Then Jamal Adams suffered a season-ending non-contact injury on the turf at MetLife Stadium, and the conversation changed fast.
Suddenly, Smith looks less like a nice extra and more like a real need.
Minnesota’s unofficial safety depth chart now has Joshua Metellus and Jay Ward starting, with Theo Jackson, Tavierre Thomas, Jacob Thomas and Jakobe Thomas behind them. That’s a workable group on paper, but not one that screams certainty. The outside view backs that up too, with Two Deep ranking the unit No. 4 in the NFC North.
The numbers from last season paint a pretty clear picture of how the Vikings’ safety room functioned. Among 107 safeties with at least 200 coverage snaps, Ward finished 30th in PFF coverage grade at 68.6, just behind Smith at 69.0. Metellus came in far lower at 92nd with a 46.8 coverage grade.
In pass rush grade, Metellus was the standout of the three at 27th with a 72.6, which fits the way Brian Flores uses his safeties in a blitz-heavy scheme. Smith checked in 29th at 71.5, while Ward was 101st at 44.8.
Run defense was more of a mixed bag. Ward ranked 52nd, Metellus 64th and Smith 85th.
The broader takeaway is hard to miss: Metellus seems uniquely suited to this defense, Ward deserves a longer look after playing only 249 coverage snaps, and Smith may be more necessity than luxury at this point.
That doesn’t mean the Vikings should expect the same workload they got from him in the past. Smith played 793 snaps last season, which ranked 50th among safeties, and that may actually be the best sign of all for a 37-year-old defender. If he returns, the likeliest path is a reduced role - more of a pitch count, with Ward and Metellus handling as much as their play earns them and Smith stepping in for injuries or specific sub-package situations.
The caution flag is obvious once you start looking around the league.
The list of players from Smith’s draft class who were still active last season, if applicable in 2026, is extremely short. It basically amounts to a punter, Kirk Cousins and the ageless Thomas Davis starting for a bad Jets team.
When the focus narrows to defenders in their age-37 season or older, the sample is even thinner. Last season, only two players fit that bill: Calais Campbell, who played 522 defensive snaps for Arizona at age 39 and posted 43 tackles, 6.5 sacks and 9.0 tackles for loss, and Brandon Graham, who played 113 snaps for Philadelphia at age 37 and finished with eight tackles and 3.0 sacks.
Graham is currently unsigned, while Campbell is back with the Ravens for another season. He was also the only age-37-or-older defender to play in 2024 or 2023. Before that, you have to go back to 2020 for Thomas Davis, who played 137 snaps for Washington at age 37, and Tramon Williams, who logged 169 for Baltimore.
At safety, the list stretches back to 2000 and still only turns up six players who appeared in age-37-or-older seasons. Mike Adams did it twice, once with Carolina at 37 and again with Houston at 38.
Brian Dawkins did it twice with Denver, at 37 and 38. Lawyer Milloy did it with Seattle at 37.
Eugene Robinson did it with Carolina at 37.
The production varied wildly. Adams was a workhorse for Carolina in 2018, playing 936 defensive snaps and making 75 tackles with three interceptions and six passes defended, but his PFF coverage grade that season ranked 98th among 103 safeties with at least 200 defensive snaps.
Dawkins held up much better, grading 17th in 2011 and 35th in 2010. Milloy graded 56th in 2010, and there’s no PFF data for Robinson’s 2000 season.
The lesson is pretty blunt: very few safeties make it this far, and even fewer are still real assets. Most are on limited workloads, and most of the exceptions are Hall of Fame-caliber names.
That’s what makes Smith the rare case Minnesota can actually justify bending for. If there’s someone you’d be willing to manage carefully - skipping most or all of camp the way Brett Favre did, designing the defense to maximize his value while trimming his snaps - it’s Smith.
And after Adams went down, he fits exactly what the Vikings need.
In Other News...
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Justin Jefferson Just Gave Vikings Fans A Reason To Believe Again
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For Vikings fans, it was the kind of camp clip that can spark optimism about what the offense might look like heading into the 2026 season, and it also gives fantasy players another reason to keep Jefferson near the top of their boards. The chemistry with Murray was a particularly interesting wrinkle in a practice filled with attention-grabbing moments, even if the bigger question is how much of that connection carries into the games that count. [Read more 🡒]