The Vikings have Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris on their team.
So, how in the world could they rank in the bottom third of Pro Football Focus’ secondary rankings?
Well, that’s because they have an unproven and inexperienced cornerback group after the departures of Mackensie Alexander, Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes.
In Steve Palazzolo’s rankings over at PFF, the Vikings rank all the way down at 21st.
Here’s a bit of what Palazzolo wrote about the Vikings:
Few secondaries have more uncertainty than the Minnesota Vikings’ unit right now. They lost their top three cornerbacks from a season ago in the offseason, leaving just Mike Hughes and Holton Hill to battle for playing time against rookies Jeff Gladney and Cameron Dantzler. Hughes was a first-round pick in 2018, but injuries have limited him to just over 700 snaps in two seasons split across multiple different positions. Hill played well as a rookie in 2019, but an eight-game suspension for 2020 makes it challenging to rely on him going forward, which will give Gladney and Dantzler every chance to start and feature heavily.
Minnesota’s cornerback group is something I wrote about earlier this week and it’s probably the storyline to watch with the Vikings this season.
The one thing the Vikings have on their side is head coach Mike Zimmer, who has had plenty of success developing cornerbacks throughout his career.
To round out the NFC North, the Packers rank 11th, the Lions rank 14th and the Bears rank 20th.
You can check out the full rankings here.