Vikings Fan Favorite Sounds Like a Man Moving Toward Retirement
No disputing the basic reality: Harrison Smith is a Vikings fan favorite.
Essentially everyone who has followed his career would contend that he belongs in the Hall of Fame. Whether the voters agree remains to be seen. The 36-year-old safety — he’ll arrive at 37 in February — has been less sensational in 2025, playing pretty good football rather than the elite performances of yesteryear. Is he moving toward his final four games?
Vikings Fan Favorite Harrison Smith Nearing Retirement
After the most recent game, Mr. Smith was emotional when chatting with the media.
Apparently, head coach Kevin O’Connell offered a speech to the team. The emphasis rested in playing in a manner that would reflect their feelings about football from within their high school self. The message resonated with The Hitman, someone who got choked up. Does that show of emotion hint at what’s to come following the 2025 NFL season?
At some point, this ride is going to end. He’ll hang up his cleats — whenever that occurs — with a tremendous amount of accomplishments:
- A first-team All Pro and a second-team All Pro.
- A six-time Pro Bowler.
- A fourth-place finish in Defensive Player of the Year Voting.
- 1,169 career tackles, 38 interceptions, 20.5 sacks, and so on (still being piled up).
- More than one or two rim-rattling hits.
He has been the gold standard for safety versatility. Both of Mike Zimmer and Brian Flores have had the sophistication to lean into the attributes that make Harrison Smith so special. He has good size, nice range, and unusual intelligence. His compete and physicality are excellent. Using him as the queen on the chess board therefore makes a lot of sense.
On one snap, Smith can be lining up along the defensive line for a blitz. He can then be tasked with being a deep safety. Go ahead and drop him into the box for the next snap before tasking him with being a slot corner the next time. Throughout all of the shuffling will be plenty of pre-snap disguising.
The time is coming, though, for Smith to get to the end.
He’s presently gobbling up a touch beyond $9.9 million in cap space. Moving on from the defender after the season will see dead money taking a bite out of the cap space. Part of the cost of doing business for deciding to keep him around for 2025 after a promising 2024 fizzled.
Yet another series of cap shenanigans to make the finances work isn’t impossible. It is, however, looking unlikely, in no small part due to an unusually emotional Smith being very reflective following a great win over Washington that involved Smith plucking a pass out of the sky.
Standing at 6’2″ and weighing 211 pounds, Harrison Smith is perfectly built to be an NFL safety. The time is coming soon, though, when even someone who is uniquely-equipped to play the position will need to step away from the game (at least as a player).
If there really are just four games remaining, Smith will get his own press conference as a send off at some point in 2026. He’ll also see his #22 retired. Whenever he steps foot inside U.S. Bank Stadium afterwards, Smith will generate huge applause.
Next up for the Vikings and Smith is a road battle against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.
