How will the Vikings handle Harrison Smith?
Sadly, it’s probably going to involve him being cut
For over a decade now, Harrison Smith has been a leader on defense for the Minnesota Vikings and one of the best all-around safeties in the National Football League. Unfortunately, it feels more and more like we’ve seen the last game for him in purple.
With three weeks remaining until the start of free agency in the NFL, the Vikings have a bit of a situation with Smith, specifically with his contract. As it stands right now, Smith has a cap figure for the 2024 season of just over $19 million according to Over the Cap. That’s the third-highest number on the roster, behind only Brian O’Neill and Justin Jefferson for players that are currently slated to be on the roster in 2024. (Kirk Cousins’ void-year dead cap hit is also higher, but we’re not counting that.
Smith didn’t have a bad season in 2023 by any real measure. Sure, it wasn’t prime Harrison Smith good, but considering that he just turned 35 it’s unlikely that he gets to that level again. The Vikings also aren’t necessarily hurting for cap space, but cutting Smith would give the team a significant boost in that area.
If the team releases Smith, they would have to take on a $7.8 million dead cap hit (again, based on Over the Cap’s numbers), but they would gain around $11.3 million in salary cap space. If he were designated as a post-1 June cut, the dead money hit would go down to around $3.9 million with a salary cap boost of $15.3 million.
If Smith were to be cut by the Vikings, it seems like they’d still be okay at the safety position given the way that both Camryn Bynum and Josh Metellus stepped up in Brian Flores’ defense last season. Obviously Smith’s knowledge and leadership ability aren’t things that the team could immediately replace, but that’s the sort of trade-off that needs to be made in a situation like this.
Smith is the longest-tenured member of the Vikings, having been with the organization since the team traded up to draft him in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft.
Smith did do a bit of a restructure last season to remain on the team, and I suppose that’s something that we could see again this season, but it just seems like this is the end of the line for one of the Vikings’ best defensive players of the last decade. It’s going to be rough to see the announcement that Harrison Smith has been released by the Vikings but, unfortunately, it’s something that we should probably be bracing ourselves for.
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Rumor: Vikings announcer Paul Allen says Broncos HC Sean Payton is ‘quite enamored’ with J.J. McCarthy.
The voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen, has reportedly heard from a “pretty reliable individual that Broncos head coach Sean Payton is quite enamored with quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
It’s rumor season in the NFL and the Denver Broncos are in the midst of yet another rumor as we progress through the offseason. As we know, the team is expected to release veteran quarterback Russell Wilson sometime in the coming days and weeks which would leave them without a starting quarterback. How the team and head coach Sean Payton go about filling that vital role on the team will be the talk of the offseason and the rumors surrounding that move are heating up.
Well, the longtime Minnesota Vikings play-by-play announcer Paul Allen chimed in on the subject on Tuesday and said that he has heard that Broncos head coach Sean Payton is quite enamored with J.J. McCarthy.
Allen mentions that there is a belief-forming amongst local media in Denver that Sean Payton loves Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy. He continued by saying that a “pretty reliable individual” has informed him that Sean Payton is quite enamored with J.J. McCarthy.
“There is just a little bit of steam that is beginning to emerge locally that Sean Payton loves J.J. McCarthy. Payton covets the next Drew Brees. So just keep that in mind, ya know, when you’re thinking 11 and if you’re thinking J.J. McCarthy at 11 just know behind you have the desperate Payton who basically will beg, borrow, and steal to get exactly what he wants from this draft from a QB standpoint. A pretty reliable individual informed me over the weekend that Payton is quite enamored with J.J. McCarthy.”
As we stand right now, McCarthy is viewed as the 4th quarterback behind Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels but recent reports/rumors suggest he might even be higher. Multiple reports have indicated that the league is higher on McCarthy than the public thinks and that even one NFC team has him as the second quarterback on their board. So, if true, it would make sense that Payton would be amongst those who have a high opinion of McCarthy.
So, why would Payton be so high on McCarthy? Well, during Super Bowl week he appeared on the Jim Rome show and was asked what he is looking for in a quarterback. He said: “I think it’s important that they’re quick processors. This was a strength of Drew’s, it’s a strength of Mahomes. These guys have to operate quickly in 6 or 7 seconds. It’s the hardest thing for us to evaluate.”. Well, NFL.com’s draft analyst Lance Zierlein said that NFL evaluators have described McCarthy’s processing skills as elite and said McCarthy feels like a “Sean Payton pick”.
On top of that, McCarthy just turned 21 years old, is pretty athletic, has an NFL arm, good size, and has untapped potential. At Michigan, he was not asked to do a lot but that does not mean he cannot do it. He has shown flashes throughout his college career and this has the league intrigued about his potential.
Now, if the Broncos and Sean Payton want McCarthy, they may need to jump a few teams to do so. Paul Allen, the originator of this rumor is the play-by-play announcer for the Vikings who will be in the market for a quarterback if they do not re-sign Kirk Cousins. They pick 11th, one spot ahead of the Broncos, and have been connected to McCarthy early in the process. Then of course, you have the quarterback-needy teams in the top 10 who could take him like the Commanders, Patriots, Giants, and Falcons.
Now, this is just a rumor by a play-by-play announcer from another team. So, at most, we just file this one away and see what else comes out in the coming weeks, especially during and after the Combine, as the Broncos likely will be searching for their new starting quarterback
