Vikings eye defensive backs in NFL draft, with potential to find successor for Harrison Smith

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Offseason roster arrangement for the Minnesota Vikings over the past few years has included a running theme: Will Harrison Smith retire or return?

The six-time Pro Bowl safety has re-upped for a 14th season, stabilizing an unsettled secondary yet again. Smith has continued to capably perform as a solid NFL starter, effectively using his intelligence to compensate for whatever amount of athleticism that has diminished at age 36, but at some point soon the Vikings will need a replacement plan.

Particularly after Smith’s partner in the starting lineup from the previous three years, Cam Bynum, departed as a free agent, this might well be the draft in which to find his successor.

"There's going to be a day when that's not going to happen, and I don't look forward to that day, but he's been such a great player here,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said.

The Vikings gave Theo Jackson a contract extension, suggesting confidence in him stepping in for Bynum. They also have a natural safety in Josh Metellus, a favorite of defensive coordinator Brian Flores for his ability to play all over the field.

But with the 24th pick in the first round, the Vikings are positioned relatively well for one of the consensus top two safeties: Nick Emmanwori from South Carolina and Malaki Starks from Georgia. Though the safety class is thin overall, ranked last among 11 position groups in one analysis by NFL.com, at least one of those players coming out of the pro football prospect factory in the Southeastern Conference is likely to be there on Thursday night.

In the past eight years, the Vikings have used six picks over the first three rounds on a defensive back. None of them played a single snap for the Vikings last season. The 2022 draft proved to be especially costly, with neither safety Lewis Cine in the first round nor cornerback Andrew Booth in the second round panning out.

This recent fruitlessness at cornerback in particular has forced a pattern of using veteran stopgaps. Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Griffin became free agents, and even after giving Byron Murphy a big contract on the heels of his first Pro Bowl season the depth chart there is thin again this year. Mekhi Blackmon, the 2023 second-round pick, missed last season after tearing the ACL on the first practice of training camp.

Maxwell Hairston (Kentucky), Benjamin Morrison (Notre Dame) and Azareye’h Thomas (Florida State) are three of the first-round-caliber prospects widely projected to be available at No. 24 for the Vikings, who don’t have another pick until No. 97, a compensatory selection at the end of the third round, and have only four selections overall this year.

Even after guaranteeing more than $53 million in free agency to center Ryan Kelly and left guard Will Fries, the right guard spot remains up for grabs for a prospect who could push incumbent Blake Brandel.

Though the Vikings added veterans Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave to the mix with stalwart Harrison Phillips on the interior of the defensive line, this draft is deep at that vital position.

The wide receiver, tight end and offensive tackle positions are stacked with some of the team’s biggest stars. The acquisition of Jordan Mason as a backup to Aaron Jones crossed running back off the list. The quarterback job is all J.J. McCarthy’s.

The addition last year of Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel before drafting Dallas Turner minimizes the desire for edge rushers, but that’s one of those positions teams are always wise to watch closely.

"There's always going to be a need and want for good players, at every position," Adofo-Mensah said. "Even if it's the need you don't see today, it's the league. It's always going to come on the short-term horizon."

The Vikings paid heavily for Turner at No. 17 in 2024, after they’d acquired No. 23 in a pre-draft trade with Houston that cost them their 2025 second-rounder (No. 56) and a second-rounder last year. The Vikings then sent their third (No. 88) and fourth (No. 126) round picks for 2025 to Jacksonville on draft day last year to move up six spots for Turner.

Their sixth (No. 200) and seventh (No. 240) round picks went to Cleveland with edge rusher Za’Darius Smith in a salary-dumping swap in 2023 that brought back a fifth-rounder (No. 139) this year and last year.

The Mason trade with San Francisco involved a pick swap, with the Vikings getting a sixth-rounder (No. 187) and sending away their fifth-rounder (No. 160).