If Harrison Smith can't play, how could things look different?

DC Brian Flores indicated that Smith's role isn't easy to replace

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — The Vikings were back at practice on Thursday at TCO Performance Center. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw did not participate in practice as he continues to get to 100% following an ACL injury last year. Here’s what else stood out from Thursday’s press conferences and locker room…

Smith’s role is ‘unique to him’

Harrison Smith did not practice on Thursday, putting his Week 1 in question. He has been dealing with a health issue and is ramping up for his return, according to Kevin O’Connell but his status for Monday night’s game against Chicago is very much up in the air.

If the Vikings have to play without him, they won’t just be missing a 1,000-snap player from 2024 who had three interceptions, the defense will be without one of its most important communicators and most versatile players.

Defensive coordinator Brian Flores was asked whether Smith’s role can be replaced by another player or if it’s specific just to him. Flores said:

“I would say it's certainly unique to him. Not to say that we don't have other highly intelligent, high football IQ guys. Metellus is a guy who comes to mind that plays a lot of different positions. So if we put him in Harry's [spot], I think he could do that but [Harrison] is all over the place…There's a lot of reasons why it's unique to him, obviously 14 years in the league playing at a high level and just high level acumen.”

If Smith is out, Flores will have a choice of whether to play backup safety Jay Ward and stick with a three-safety look with Josh Metellus in his usual role or move Metellus back to Smith’s spot and play more nickel packages with Byron Murphy Jr. in the slot and Isaiah Rodgers and Jeff Okudah on the outsides.

The nickel spot is very familiar with Murphy Jr. as he played 307 snaps there last year, per PFF, and as many as 572 in a single season earlier in his career.

But using the nickel package more often would be a changeup from the last two years in which Flores has implemented a three-safety system with Smith, Cam Bynum and Metellus.

What are the differences between using three safeties and the nickel?

“The first thing that comes to mind is just man versus zone [coverage],” Flores said. “Bigger bodies in the run game… it just boils down to, you know, who do you think your best group is? If that's three corners, then you put that [group in]…. if it's three safeties, and you put that group in and call the game accordingly. I think we've got good players in both rooms…it depends on the matchups.”

One of the Vikings’ big offseason bets — letting Cam Bynum leave to sign in Indianapolis and putting Theo Jackson into his spot — will be tested right away. Jackson had another strong training camp and is entering his third year in Flores’ system, so the team has had a large sample size to evaluate him in the past.

Brian Flores vs. Ben Johnson

Certainly Caleb Williams vs. JJ McCarthy will be the most talked-about matchup on Monday night at Soldier Field but the battle between the Vikings’ DC and the Bears’ HC will be just as juicy. Over the last two years when Johnson was the offensive coordinator in Detroit, the Lions went 4-0 versus Minnesota and produced 122 points in the victories. And those were two seasons in which Flores’ defenses finished 13th and 5th in total points allowed.

We shouldn’t overlook that Johnson’s offenses overall were 5th and 1st in points scored, so it was hardly just Flores that Detroit was running a track meet against. However, he was one of the only offensive coordinators to seemingly have consistent answers against Flores’ aggressive scheme.

What makes Johnson’s play calling so tough? All the pieces fit and they all look similar.

“It's the run game, it's the pass game, it's the play-action game, it's the screen game, it's the [shot]gun runs, under-[center] runs, under [center] play-action, gun play -action, I mean anything, third down, red zone, all of it,” Flores said. “He does a good job of putting it all together. Things that look like one thing, there's two, three, four, five things out of it.”

Flores called Johnson one of the best “football minds in our game,” which is a high compliment from one of the best defensive minds in the game but things will look quite a bit different with Caleb Williams under center versus Jared Goff. To give you an idea of how good Goff was when playing in rhythm, the Detroit QB had a 111.3 QB rating when throwing the ball under 2.5 seconds last year (4th best). Williams ranked 28th.

Will we see a version of Williams that looks wildly different in terms of his rhythm than in 2024? Or will we see an offense that doesn’t look like the 2023 and 2024 Lions that gave the Vikings so many problems?

DTs Elijah Williams and Jalen Redmond