The Minnesota Vikings will travel to Soldier Field in Week 1 to take on the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, and they may have to do it without their longest-tenured player.
At today’s press conference in Eagan, head coach Kevin O’Connell said that safety Harrison Smith is dealing with a “personal health issue” that has kept him away from the team in recent weeks. The issue was not enough to cause the team to put him on injured reserve when they set the 53-man roster, which would have guaranteed Smith missing the first four games of the season. O’Connell did say that Smith would be “evaluated weekly” and that he is expected to make a full recovery.
That’s sufficiently vague, though it’s worth pointing out that it’s really none of our business what the issue is if Smith or the team don’t feel compelled to tell us what it is.
Smith is getting ready to start his fourteenth season with the Vikings after being selected by the purple in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He has restructured his contract in each of the past two seasons in order to facilitate his return to the team, and speculation continues to swirl that the 2025 season might be his last one before he hangs up his cleats and heads off into retirement.
It’s worth noting that the team did sign veteran safety K’Von Wallace to the last open spot on their practice squad on Thursday, and that might be insurance in the event that Smith is not ready to go when the Vikings get to Chicago a week from Sunday. This is definitely a situation that’s worth keeping an eye on.
Whatever it is that Harrison Smith is dealing with, we all hope that he puts it in the rear-view mirror sooner rather than later so we can see him back on the field with the rest of the Vikings’ defense.
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