#Packers HC Matt LaFleur says #Vikings S Harrison Smith is the “straw that stirs the drink” for Minnesota defensively.

“His ability to get them in and out of calls, it shows up all over tape.” pic.twitter.com/F0UNYMaLW7

— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) September 8, 2026

greediron wrote:

The AT trade was desperation.

Whose desperation remains a mystery. Kwesi wouldn't make the deal, so Brez went behind his back and made it anyway. Because why? The owners told him to, using all of their usual great football acumen? 😄 They put the dys in dysfunction.

comet52 wrote:

The owners told him to, using all of their usual great football acumen? 😄 They put the dys in dysfunction.

Most owners do...

MaroonBells wrote:

Hindsight is 20/20, but trading anything for a WR4 is just lunacy. I think it was mostly a PR move. The addition of Harry, while not a needle mover, gives Flores rotational flexibility pretty much everywhere now.

Plus, I think he is a great presence for the Thomas boys.

purplefaithful wrote:

Most owners do...

Sad but true.

TE Ben Yurosek placed on Injured Reserve to make room for Smith.

The #Vikings have officially signed @harrismith22.

📰: https://t.co/O0AeHr2HeT pic.twitter.com/CYgWbPa1Sg

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 8, 2026

purplefaithful wrote:

Most owners do...

Red McCombs saw 2 NFCC games as a NFL owner, lol......not sure 'owner dysfunction' has much to do with team talent. Mike Brown, one of the cheapest if not THE cheapest owners of a NFL also has seen 2 AFCC games. Its way more complicated than that, but fans love to bust on the owners.

StickierBuns wrote:

Red McCombs saw 2 NFCC games as a NFL owner, lol......not sure 'owner dysfunction' has much to do with team talent. Mike Brown, one of the cheapest if not THE cheapest owners of a NFL also has seen 2 AFCC games. Its way more complicated than that, but fans love to bust on the owners.

The better owners arent quite so meddlesome imo...

It's all about the QB in the NFL

Something thats haunted our favorite team (most seasons) for about 50 years now.

purplefaithful wrote:

It's all about the QB in the NFL
Something thats haunted our favorite team (most seasons) for about 50 years now.

Yes sir. ^

I'm very happy to see Harrison Smith back for another year with the Vikings! pic.twitter.com/ckvA6TKJHR

— Carl Eller (@CarlEller81) September 9, 2026

Vikergirl wrote:

https://x.com/CarlEller81/status/2097785148708106435

Moose!

It would be nice if the ancestors who are still around could see a Lombardi in Eagan.

I like that Harry said he came back as much to play as he did to teach the young guys. There's big value there for players like the rookie Thomas's....how his personal play is remains to be seen however.

Vikings fixture Harrison Smith nearly walked away from football. Here’s what pulled him back.

After 14 years with the Vikings, the 37-year-old safety contemplated life after the NFL. But competition, his fit in Brian Flores’ defense and a community that wanted him back proved too hard to leave behind.

It became part of Kevin O’Connell‘s summer routine to call Harrison Smith, usually after the safety had gotten off the golf course.

The tone of their conversations varied based on how Smith had played, to the point where O’Connell wasn’t sure he’d be able to get the 37-year-old back with the Vikings.

“Honestly, no,” O’Connell said when asked if he had a hunch Smith would come back for a 15th season. “And he probably kept it that way on purpose. Depending on when I got him, depending on how his round of golf went, depending on where he finished in the club championship, I could get a different version of him.”

O’Connell didn’t expect the start of training camp to stir Smith’s desire to play.

“If he would have got the itch at that point, that would have meant training camp for him,” the Vikings coach said with a smile.

But as Smith stayed in shape through the offseason, he caught himself remarking how good his body felt. His wife Madison and his family were on board for one more year. And on some level, the safety said Wednesday, “I kind of knew.”

“The heightened sense of gamesmanship amongst the coaches and players; it’s such a fun game,” said Smith, who has spent his entire career in Minnesota after being selected in the first round of the 2012 draft. “You can play all the golf you want, and that’s great, but there’s nothing quite like the heightened sense of game day. That was one thing when I was looking at it, if I can still get a piece of that and be productive, it’s hard to say no.”

Harrison Smith’s role in the Vikings defense — and what to expect Week 1

Smith was back on the practice field Wednesday, wearing his familiar No. 22 and seemingly set to resume his role as the on-field coordinator of the team’s defense.

The Vikings listed Smith as a starter on their first unofficial regular-season depth chart, and his $12.25 million deal makes him the team’s second highest-paid defender behind outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel.

O’Connell said the team has a “clear-cut role” in mind for Smith, who has a chance to play in the opener against the Packers on Sunday.

The fit he’s found in coordinator Brian Flores’ defense was “crucial” to his return, Smith said.

“Some of the things he asks of the position, it probably highlights some of the things I can do in the last stage of my career,” he said. “I look around, and I don’t know if I could be quite [as] productive in every scheme. ’Flo’ knows how to emphasize that [skill]. I mean, that’s huge.”

Why the Vikings never gave up on Harrison Smith returning

The Vikings approached the final game of the 2025 season as if it would be Smith’s last, with family and former teammates attending the game.

With 3:32 left in the team’s win over the Packers, referee John Hussey announced the Vikings had called their second timeout “in honor of Harrison Smith.” Had the Vikings gotten the ball back at the end of the game, O’Connell even planned for Smith to take the game’s final kneel-down.

But Smith never announced his retirement. When the Vikings released Smith on March 11 with a post-June 1 designation, sources said it was just a procedural move and emphasized he could still return to Minnesota.

The items in his locker, down to the hawk statue that’s sat in the Vikings’ locker room since the team opened its Eagan facility in 2018, remained waiting for him.

Smith kept an eye on the Vikings’ preseason games, and the calls from O’Connell, as well as messages from teammates, kept coming.

“I may have been texting him a couple days beforehand,” said linebacker Blake Cashman, another key lieutenant in Flores’ defense. “When it comes to a lot of the crazy, exotic stuff we do defensively, he’s a guy that makes that stuff work and gives offenses a lot of problems. I know everybody on our side of the ball is stoked. I don’t know that I’ve seen ‘Flo’ that happy in a minute.”

This season seems likely to finally be Smith’s last, but he couldn’t say no to one more year in the state where he’s spent his entire career.

“I was pretty humbled by the amount of messages and texts from not only just players, but everyone in the building, people in the city kind of nudging me,” Smith said. “They all kind of add up. I definitely missed being here.”

Strib

Though he’d enjoyed his summer at home, Harrison Smith admitted he “kind of knew” he’d be back for one more ride with the #Vikings. “You can play all the golf you want,” he said. “But there’s nothing quite like the heightened sense of game day.” https://t.co/B2U2YbRYXY

— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) September 10, 2026

Contract details are out - https://overthecap.com/player/harrison-smith/1779

It appears Brez has worked a decent deal with a low cap hit for 2026. Assuming Smith retires after this season and they designate him as a post-June 1 cut, the void hit will be 2 mil for 2027 and 6 mil for 2028. Not great but not really any worse than what we were already carrying on him in void money.