Pro Football Rumors
After mulling retirement in the early days of the offseason, Vikings safety Harrison Smith opted to play another year and re-signed to play with the only team he’s ever known. Unfortunately, what may end up being his final season of NFL play got off to an ominous start that’s seen him absent from football activities since August 11. Nearly a full month later, Smith finally spoke publicly on the matter today and asserted that he expects to be back by Week 4 of the regular season.
The first rumors that rolled in at the end of August called Smith’s issue an illness. The ailment caused the 36-year-old to sit out of the team’s final two weeks of training camp, but reports claimed he was expected to make a full recovery. In his first comments since the news broke, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, Smith clarified that his struggles were unassociated with his mental health. Though he declined to go into specifics, he assured the media that the nature of the issue was “physical.”
“I’m just trying to get my conditioning up,” Smith said about his plans moving forward. “I’m going to go out there and see how much I can handle and go from there. I’ve already moved around, and I’m moving around well. It’s just volume and conditioning.”
The Vikings pointedly decided not to place him on an injured list at the roster cut deadline; the injured reserve with a designation to return and the reserve/non-football illness list were both viable options. They seemingly opted not to do so because he would have been forced to miss the first four weeks of the season before being eligible to return to the active roster, and they believed he would be ready to return sooner.
Smith appears to be doing his best to reward their confidence in him, as he told the media, “We’re kind of fluid with if I’m ready to go or not, and if I am going to help the team or not. That all matters. But I expect to be back before (the four-week mark).”
