The Vikings are still waiting on Harrison Smith, but the case for keeping the door open is pretty clear. With Minnesota set for its September 13 matchup with the Green Bay Packers, the 14-year veteran has yet to sign, even as the team continues to stay in contact with him.
That patience makes sense. At 37, Smith does not need the grind of a full August camp, and the Vikings have already been reminded how quickly bodies can pile up this time of year.
Jamal Adams suffered a non-contact injury during camp, while Jacob Thomas and Jakobe Thomas are also hurt. In that kind of environment, a player like Smith becomes even more valuable.
This is not about asking a veteran to skip football. It is about avoiding the most punishing stretch of the calendar.
Training camp means repeated contact, long practices and the kind of awkward collisions that can wear down even the toughest players. For younger players fighting for jobs, those reps matter.
For Smith, they carry more risk than reward.
He has already spent 14 seasons taking on the dirty work: tackling in the box, covering tight ends, blitzing quarterbacks and cleaning up as the last line of defense. He knows the Vikings’ system, knows how to prepare and understands what his body needs before a season begins. Waiting until camp is over would help him avoid soft-tissue issues or the kind of physical wear that can build up fast.
Minnesota also does not need him to be ready for every snap right away. If he returns, the Vikings would have to be smart about his workload.
They could ease him in early, use him in key packages and save his best football for the stretch run in November, December and possibly January. The point is not that Smith deserves special treatment.
It is that Minnesota has to recognize where he is in his career and what kind of help he can still provide.
That help matters most in Brian Flores’ defense, which is built on complexity and movement. Flores asks his defensive backs to disguise coverages, rotate late, handle blitz adjustments, play man coverage at times and make quick decisions when offenses try to punish pressure. Smith has long been one of the best safeties in football at handling that load.
He is not just sitting back as a deep defender. Smith can come up near the line, show blitz, drop into coverage, cover a tight end, work the middle of the field or rotate into a two-high look right before the snap. That kind of flexibility forces quarterbacks to hesitate, and that hesitation is a major weapon for a blitz-heavy defense.
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff recently talked about how hard Flores’ post-snap movement is to deal with, and he singled out Smith and Josh Metellus for making things even tougher.
Harrison and Metellus allow them to do things that I’m not sure every other team could do. Those guys are so smart and so confident in what they want to do that they are able to hold down and get out of there at the snap. With, not no repercussion, but they know where their problems are, they understand the game in that way, which makes it really hard.
That is exactly the kind of value Smith brings. It is not just about tackles or interceptions. It is about giving Flores the freedom to dial up the kind of looks most defenses cannot pull off.
Smith would also give Minnesota a stabilizing voice for a defense that is working in younger players. Jay Ward and Jakobe Thomas are among the safeties competing for bigger roles, and those reps are important.
But there is a real gap between raw ability and handling a complicated NFL defense under pressure. Smith helps bridge that gap.
He understands route concepts, protection tells, offensive formations and how quarterbacks try to spot pressure before the snap. He can line teammates up, calm things down and help keep a well-designed Flores blitz from turning into an easy big play.
The Vikings should not expect Smith to shoulder the whole defense. That is neither realistic nor fair. But bringing him in after camp could let him stay healthier and play in a controlled role, while giving Minnesota exactly what Flores values most: a trusted, versatile, instinctive veteran who makes a difficult defense even harder to solve.
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