Hitman Returns: Harrison Smith Completes Flores’ Defense

I interviewed former backup Vikings quarterback Kyle Sloter on my Vikings Playbook Podcast back at the end of June and asked him about Smith. Kyle had recently been golfing with Harrison and expressed that he still had fire to play the game and could see him returning after training camp.

He was right.

Smith never disclosed to anyone that he planned to return that we know of, but hope remained. Whether it was from head coach Kevin O’Connell or Brian Flores, there were signs the Vikings were waiting.

Harrison Smith never got the farewell that the team or the fans wanted. No parade. No speech. He didn’t take the opportunity to do a farewell with veteran teammates Adam Thielen and CJ Ham. He just kind of slipped away into the possible sunset. Was this it? As a Vikings fan, is that really the last I had seen of one of the greatest players to play the safety position hanging it up?

Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores had been hoping for Smith’s return. I am sure Kevin O’Connell and the weekly coffee visits as a player helped strengthen the relationship with Harrison Smith as well. They didn’t need to say it outright. They never had to. They wanted him back. The plan lived in the cap space they refused to spend.

All spring and summer, the obvious need sat on the edge of the defense. Jonathan Greenard was gone. Tyler Batty’s knee had given out in the preseason. Behind Andrew Van Ginkel and Dallas Turner, the depth chart wasn’t ideal going into the season. Jadeveon Clowney was available for $5.5 million. That is who I campaigned for the Vikings to sign. Clowney was the kind of veteran splash that would have quieted the masses and given solid depth. Minnesota never brought him in. Houston took him instead.

They signed Kyle Van Noy to a practice-squad deal. A Flores guy from another team, a proven rusher who could be elevated on Sundays if the edge room needed. He was cheap, flexible, and the move wasn’t permanent by signing him to the practice squad.

That was at a position of need!

The kind of move that looks like cap management until you notice what it is really protecting.

Room for a number that still belonged to one player. Harrison Smith.

Smith had been designated a post-June 1 release in March, a move that saved money and kept the door cracked. O’Connell has talked about keeping in contact with Harrison Smith. And whether it was seeing the potential in the team for one last run, or the itch to play, he is back.

Flores can now start drawing up plays on the whiteboard that keep opposing coordinators up at night.

Smith walking down into the box, showing blitz, then vanishing.

What Harrison Smith brings to this defense is why the Vikings kept $22.4 million in Cap Space at one time during the offseason. It is why they still had $8.8 million at the time of signing Harrison Smith. Flores’ defense is meant to disguise, confuse, and lie to the quarterback. Harrison Smith sells that lie at the line of scrimmage better than anyone. He can creep to the line like a fifth rusher, freeze protection, and still be deep enough over the top by the time the ball is in the air. He can show two-high and rotate late and make a quarterback throw into double coverage. He can sit in the middle, cover the tight end, fake a blitz just to blow up a route that looked like it would be open two seconds earlier.

Quarterbacks already have limited time to read a defense, commit to a scheme, and execute. Every play becomes a chess match with Harrison Smith. You can call him a coach on the field for years. He may even do that someday. He already does that on the field. He checks protections, changes the look, and can communicate the disguise to teammates before the offense even breaks the huddle.

Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores can cook something strange in the meeting room because he has players like Harrison Smith who make it all work. That is why they held the cap room. Not because they did not see the need. Because the defense Flores wants to run still has a specific player requirement. Harrison Smith can still do it, and possibly teach it to the young players on the team.

It is not a farewell tour contract. It is the price of flipping the script and the chessboard intact eight days before Green Bay walks into U.S. Bank Stadium.

Smith may not play every snap the way he did a decade ago. He does not have to. He only has to be the player who changes the look at the line of scrimmage and affects play calls. Dallas Turner and Van Ginkel can hunt the quarterback. Metellus can fly. Murphy and Rodgers can play the boundary. The whole Flores master plan needs the man who can stand in the box looking like pressure and then appear over the top looking like coverage. Jay Ward may be turning into that guy, and we saw flashes of that.

The torch will be passed, but Harrison Smith will first be motivated to show out in his final year. He isn’t coming back to shake hands, but to shake up the defensive looks on every play. Quarterbacks and coordinators are on notice. The “Hitman” has returned, and the Vikings defense just got a lot better in time for a Border Battle Homecoming in Week one against the Packers.