Tag: Harrison Smith

Harrison Smith weighs in on NFL banning “hip drop” tackles

Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith has tweeted his reaction to the news the NFL is moving forward with hip drop tackles.

The big news coming out of the NFL’s annual league meetings today is that the league has moved to ban hip drop tackles. This is something the league has discussed for years in the name of ‘player’s safety’, but has finally gotten enough support to move forward with the motion. Predictably, the reaction from some of the league’s defenders has been less than enthusiastic.

Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith has shared his thoughts on the matter on X (formerly Twitter), and has given some interesting perspectives on the move.

Smith posts that as a human, he’s mostly indifferent to the move, and that he understands the league wanting to “protect the merchandise” from a business perspective. He goes on to say that as a “Hitman”, the move to ban this tackling technique weakens the sport and will lead to more fines for defensive players.

This tackling technique, typically a technique used by defenders attempting to tackle a runner from behind, has led to a number of high-profile injuries in recent years, which has spear-headed the movement to ban the tackle from the game.[lawrence-related id=92388,92385,92382,92378,92376,92369,92190,92368,92362,92360]

Harrison Smith’s new contract sparks retirement discussion

Does Harrison Smith’s contract restructure signal his retirement after the 2024 season?

Being the ultimate team player for the Minnesota Vikings has been a theme in the history of Harrison Smith’s career. He took a sizable pay cut in 2023 and did so again this season.

The details for his $5.45 million pay cut have been revealed and they are very interesting.

  • 2024 base salary dropped from $14.9 million to $1.49 million
  • $7 million signing bonus
  • $510k in per game roster bonuses
  • 2024 salary cap hit: $7.315 million, down nearly $12 million
  • 3 void years added
  • 2025 base salary dropped from $19 million to $1.255 million

The way this contract is structured leads us to believe that Smith is likely going to retire after the season. The Vikings could designate Smith as a post-June 1st cut once the 2025 league year starts and save $4.2 million on the salary cap with a cap hit of just $5,315,884.

At 35 years old, Smith is nearing the end of his career and it’s not uncommon for players to make their contracts team friendly at the end to minimize the salary cap impact. Aaron Donald did as such before he retired last week.

Harrison Smith agrees to pay cut, will return for 13th season

Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith will return for his 13th season after agreeing to a pay cut.

The Minnesota Vikings continue to make moves but this time they did so in house with by restructuring the contract of safety Harrison Smith. The news was reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Smith took a pay cut of $6.7 million to stay in 2023 and he didn’t quite take that much this year. He will be making $9 million in 2024, a pay cut of $5.45 million.

Smith was excellent for the Vikings in 2023 and defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who allowed him to finally be the player that earned multiple Pro Bowl appearances and an All-Pro: a rover that is great on the blitz.

Smith is a key piece to the Vikings defense and he will be a key cog in 2024.

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How does the safety market impact Harrison Smith’s future?

The free agent safety market is flush with talent. How does that impact Minnesota Vikings S Harrison Smith and a potential pay cut?

The Minnesota Vikings have a decision to make with future Ring of Honor and potential Hall of Fame safety Harrison Smith. In 2023, the two sides agreed to a nearly $7 million pay cut that kept him around. He rewarded them with a good season and helped lead the Vikings to the 17th-ranked scoring defense.

Smith has a salary cap hit of $19,215,882 with a base salary of $14.45 million. This is similar to what his cap numbers looked like last year before it dropped to $7.5 million. The Vikings will likely approach him for another pay cut. SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson said as much during his weekly appearance on the Minnesota Sports with Mackey and Judd podcast.

“At this point, I’ll be surprised [if Smith retires]. He took a pretty decent paycut a year ago. To me, he’d have to take an even bigger paycut so we will see how that remains to be seen how that plays out. I’m just saying, I’d be pretty darn surprised if he just walks away… He loves playing for Brian Flores. Brian Flores loves him. But can he win at the level he wants to win at here in 2024. That, to me, is the question to ponder; not whether or not he is going to retire.”

That is a similar sentiment to what happened last year with his last pay cut. No matter what, Smith will have a cap charge of at least $3,915,882 due to his prorated bonus. If they were to cut or trade him, that cap hit would be $7,831,766. Those are important to note, as is a cut would save the Vikings $11,384,116.

How much could the Vikings ask Smith to trim from his salary on a pay cut? That could be a significant amount when you take a look at the safety market. Heading into free agency, the amount of 2024 cash saved is nearly $40 million more than the second-highest position with $103.25 million in money saved for teams.

This could force Smith’s hand a little bit. Then again, he doesn’t strike me as a guy who wants to leave as Wolfson mentioned above. It will come down to how both sides will approach a potential pay cut. My best guess is that he will end up with a pay cut closer to what the cap saving would be if they cut him, likely around the $7-9 million mark. That would help the Vikings and Smith still has some gas left in the tank even at age 35 but a flush safety market that seems to be significantly undervalued by teams.

Should Smith take a pay cut? Considering the market out there, it might be in his best interest as he might not get a better contract elsewhere.

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6 contracts Vikings can adjust to create salary cap space

From Justin Jefferson to Harrison Smith, these six Minnesota Vikings could have their contracts adjusted to create salary cap space.

The Minnesota Vikings’ competitive rebuild approach has been a major talking point among analysts. Why not just tear it down and rebuild from the ground up? Well, if you haven’t been paying attention, they did that while winning 20 games over the last two seasons.

In order to keep things moving in the right direction, the Vikings will need to continue adjusting the cap to meet their needs. The salary cap just went up $30 million, a near 14% increase year over year, something that hasn’t been seen prior to this season.

If they want to create even more cap space to make a huge splash in free agency, they absolutely can do that. What contracts could be modified to fulfill that goal? These six players can have their contracts modified in different ways to create cap space in 2024.

Cowboys Free Agency Targets: 8 defenders who played for Zimmer, staff

When coaches find new digs, they often bring in former players to help lead in the new system. Here are some fun ideas for the Cowboys to consider as the league year approaches. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have a brand new defensive staff, and with that they will have the opportunity to try and shore up the one issue the unit had in 2023; variance. The Dallas Cowboys had a ton of great performances under Dan Quinn over the last three seasons. Twice the led the NFL in turnovers and two different defensive backs had all-time great NFL seasons under Quinn. Trevon Diggs had the most interceptions in a single season in over 40 years in 2011 and DaRon Bland set the all-time Pick-6 record in 2023. But there were enough performances where the defense didn’t show up, most notably the wild-card loss to the upstart Green Bay Packers, that showed the unit was not all it was cracked up to be.

Now, Mike Zimmer is in charge and while the front office may not rain down on him with draft picks to improve his unit in Year 1, there’s probably a sizable free agent haul awaiting him and his new staff. Often times, coaches like to bring in players who are familiar with their systems and who they know they can trust as bridges to the other veterans they are inheriting.

Zimmer worked for Cincinnati as their DC from 2008 through 2013 and was the head coach of Minnesota from 2014 through 2021. Between his former players and those who suited up for new DL coach Jeff Zgonina (Washington 2020-2023, San Francisco 2017-2018) or run-defense coordinator Paul Guenther (Cincinnati DC 2014-2017, Oakland LB coach 2018-2020) there are a handful of current free agents who might be interested in reunions.

Here are the six names, and where they rank on PFF’s list of top 200 free agents heading into 2024. In addition, there are two players who are currently under contract but could be released before the new league year kicks in who would be under consideration.

Zulgad’s four-and-out: Could Vikings pursue son of former standout cornerback to replace Harrison Smith?

Could the Minnesota Vikings sign the son of former great Antoine Winfield? Judd Zulgad looks at that and more in his Vikings notebook.

We took a look at four potential free agent fits for the Minnesota Vikings in this space last week, but we might have missed one very interesting possibility.

That and items on Kevin O’Connell’s contract, the Vikings’ Ring of Honor and which opponents the Vikings might face in London next season are all part of this week’s action-packed column.

Vikings final defensive PFF grades for 2023 season

The final Pro Football Focus grades for the Minnesota Vikings defense shed light on a unit that over achieved due to scheme.

With the first weekend of the 2023 NFL playoffs now complete, we are looking back on the season that was for the Minnesota Vikings.

Despite a 7-10 record, the Vikings played well during the 2023 season. The defense improved from 31st in the National Football League to 16th in a very impressive turnaround. The scoring defense also improved to 13th in the NFL, which would have easily been top 10 in the league if it weren’t for the unit imploding at the end of the season.

There is a lot of hope for the future, as the unit was overall really good despite having a talent void.

The final grades from Pro Football Focus are in and reflect a unit that played well despite their late-season struggles.

Harrison Smith comments on dirty hits in today’s NFL

Smith took to Twitter to discuss late and dirty hits in the NFL with some important context

The way the game is trending in the National Football League is lighting up some interesting discussions, especially about hits.

During the wild card game between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers, Bills center Connor McGovern hit Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in the back while he was trying to bring down Stefon Diggs.

The Twitter account MLFootball commented how it was disgusting and it brought a rare tweet from Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith, who broke down why hits like this were coming.

It’s nice to see these kinds of explanations from players, as it adds necessary context that most people don’t have, as they don’t spend time in meeting rooms.

In the same thread, Smith was asked about Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph whose low hit tore the ACL of Los Angeles Rams tight end Tyler Higbee, three weeks after the same hit tore the ACL and MCL of Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson.

What Smith said is something that hasn’t been discussed nearly enough in the space of both media and social media. The hits from Joseph aren’t dirty but a consequence of trying to improve concussion rate in the NFL.

Knowledge is power and we got some from Smith.

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Harrison Smith isn’t ready to talk about the future

Smith is set to have a near $20 million cap hit in 2024 and could retire due to his age

There will be a lot of tough decisions that face the Minnesota Vikings this offseason. From the quarterback position to fixing the front seven, there are a lot of questions.

Arguably the biggest decision is going to surround future Ring of Honor member and potential Hall of Fame safety Harrison Smith. He likely will not play on the $19,215,882 cap hit he is set to have and would save $11,384,116 by releasing or trading him.

In talking to reporters after the game, Smith was adamant in not being ready to talk about the future and if he wants to play football in 2024.

“I’ll say this, it’s hard to have the ability to play and not have a desire. I’m not trying to be ominous. Right now my shoulder hurts.”

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reported that Smith had been nursing a shoulder injury that had caused him a “fair bit of pain.”

Last offseason, there were whispers that Smith would retire but instead signed the amended contract that still gave him a base salary of $7.5 million and a total value of $8 million. With the money owed to Smith that significant for a player of his age, there are a lot of things to consider.

In the meantime, Smith is going to take his time until he needs to have a decision. The Vikings likely won’t need one until the beginning of March anyway.

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