Vikings

Pro Football Focus Loves Harrison Smith, and So Do His Coaches

Photo Credit: Kyle Hansen

The Minnesota Vikings defense may be historically good.

Ranked first in fewest yards and points allowed, they may become the first Vikings team to lead the league in both categories since Bud Grant’s Purple-People-Eating squads of 1969 and 1970.

A unit that superb is rarely without several uniquely talented individuals. At safety, Grant’s Vikings had Hall of Famer Paul Krause.

Mike Zimmer’s Vikings have Harrison Smith.

An egregious Pro Bowl snub last week, Smith followed up being rejected for his third Pro Bowl by becoming the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week after intercepting two passes against the Green Bay Packers and earning Pro Football Focus’s top grade of the week (99.9).

In fact, the analytics website, while not a determining factor in Pro Bowl bids, believes Smith to be the league’s best safety by a convincing margin. Only defensive tackle Aaron Donald leads his peers by a wider margin in the site’s grading system.

On the site’s scale of 0 to 100, Smith grades a gaudy 98 for the season, 5.9 points better than Chicago’s Adrian Amos (who was also denied the Pro Bowl). The Notre Dame product is also ranked first in pass coverage and run defense subcategories.

“I think Harrison Smith is one of the most consistent players that we have.”

Smith is going to shatter Pro Football Focus’s all-time best safety grade, previously set by Eric Weddle in 2012 (94.7). Another big game from Smith against the Bears could place him in rarefied air with the eight players since 2006 to finish a season with grades of 98 or higher: J.J. Watt, Aaron Donald (twice), Adrian Peterson, Aaron Rodgers, Luke Kuechly, Robert Quinn and Tom Brady.

Not bad company.

“I think Harrison Smith is one of the most consistent players that we have,” said defensive coordinator George Edwards. “The one thing you can count on, you know what you’re getting every day with him. His preparation going into a football game is going to allow him to line up and decipher what they’re doing and also be able to communicate with other guys what to anticipate and what is going on. I think he is one of the best safeties around.”

Smith’s anticipatory skills are what have him matching his career high in interceptions with five. One of them came on a serendipitous batted ball against the Tampa Bay Buccanneers; the rest came from Smith’s shrewdness, reading the quarterback’s eyes, knowing exactly where the ball was going to be placed.

A sixth sense.

He stepped in front of a pass from Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky to set up a game-winning field goal in Week 5, picked off Green Bay’s Brett Hundley twice last Saturday by undercutting routes and delivered a highlight reel interception against Hundley back in Week 6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK0l7FPHHQM

Smith’s intuition extends to the blitz, as well, where he is tied for second in hurries with seven out of 28 pass-rush snaps. His blitzing prowess is nothing new. He leads all safeties since 2012 with nine combined sacks.

“He really trusts his eyes and his vision and decision making,” said Edwards. “And I think he does a good job disguising and doing some of those things off the weak side.”

His ability to cover, tackle, blitz — and generally be a wild card in Zimmer’s defense — is where Smith’s greatest value lies.

When Zimmer arrived in Minnesota, he didn’t know Smith was going to turn into a foundational piece of his soon-to-be fierce defense. But he decided to challenge him, just as he’d challenged great safeties like Darren Woodson, George Teague and Roy Williams in past coaching stops.

“I’ve had, in the past, some pretty good players [at safety] that have been able to do a lot of things,” said Zimmer, “so we tried to do a lot of things with him, and each time he showed he could do it.

“The biggest thing that showed up was really how smart he is and instinctive and competitive — playmaker. All those things showed up.”

“Harrison kind of knows, pretty much, what everybody does.”

Zimmer likes to quiz his defensive players on positions besides their own during film sessions. When he began instituting his system, it took all of the players’ bandwidth to learn their own possessions, but Smith — much like his fellow defensive back, the savvy Terence Newman — started learning everybody’s responsibilities.

“Harrison kind of knows, pretty much, what everybody does,” said Zimmer. “I can go talk to him and I can say, ‘Hey, do this,’ and he does it. I think the familiarity is really good with him.”

“Does a great job of communication,” said Edwards, “helping us get lined up, and different pass-offs and coverages and those kinds of things.”

Imagine being an opponent against a guy who has no blind spots, rarely misses a tackle and blitzes as well as any safety this decade.

“Playing against him,” said offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, “would be a challenge.”


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