As consistent as a Mike Zimmer curse word, Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith walks onto the practice field with a smile on his face nearly every day going through daily warm ups and stretching looking excited and energetic.
Besides transforming himself into one of the league's top safeties, Smith has plenty of other reasons to smile—one being the comfort level of Zimmer’s defensive scheme from year one to year two.
“Understanding certain things Zim wants and how he wants it to look, it’s easier now, just small things like that are helpful and make things smoother,” Smith said.
From my time down at training camp one, common thread has been sewn into the minds and repertoire of player’s daily fundamentals by Zimmer and that is technique. A boring and bland terminology that gets lost in the shuffle of cliche NFL buzzwords, but one that is clearly head and shoulders prioritized higher than the rest.
“It obviously works, he’s (Zimmer) been doing this at the top level for 20 plus years.. especially being a defensive back you want to do things as closely to how he wants it.” Smith reiterated.
Zimmer is considered a defensive-backs “guru” by many with his lengthy and vast coaching history. With his time being thinned out as a now head coach, Smith says there is someone else who has been equally as important to the progression of the secondary.
“We have a former great player and heck of a coach in Jerry Gray who’s been successful at everything he’s coached. It’s awesome for us to have that much knowledge between both those guys (Zimmer) watching us, that’s just to our advantage as players.” Smith said.
However, Smith says it’s not just coaches who are making a difference in teaching players the nuances of the NFL game, but veteran players like Terrance Newman as well who has a lot to offer a young group of players.
“As soon as he (Terrance) stepped in the room we all wanted to learn from him and pick his brain. His resume speaks for itself so even before he was here I was a fan of Terrance Newman and his game.”
While team goals are always first and foremost, Smith did mention he has a few personal goals he likes to set for himself to add extra motivation into his daily habits.
When I asked him who his favorite NFC North quarterback to intercept was he replied with, “I think (Aaron) Rodgers home field pick record going on right now is something you want to break as a defensive back.”
One place Smith can practice breaking Rodgers Lambeu record now is in a game of the ever popular “Madden” football, where he says once camp concludes and players have more free time he will jump back on the sticks
One thing is for certain though, and that is the team in which he plays with, which also came to no surprise as to why; “I play with the Vikings, because I want to hit him with myself, and talk trash.” Smith passionately spoke.
Just like he started practice, Smith ends our walk and talk with a with a ear-to-ear smile as he struts back to the dorm rooms with another day of work in the books.
Check out Luke Inman's entire interview with Harrison Smith here: