Truth REVEALED on Harrison Smith Signing...

The truth has been revealed on the Harrison Smith signing with NFL insider Mike Garofalo dropping all the details on Harry's contract as well as an expectation of his role this season. And one NFL analyst projects a huge revenge season for Justin Jefferson to reclaim his spot as the league's best wide receiver. We're going to break down all of that in this episode of Vikings Digest, but one Vikings player who's also in store for a huge revenge season is quarterback Kyle Emergas. He's currently at a 15% chance to win Comeback Player of the Year on Kolshe. And on Kolshe, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome across sports, politics, or even weather. For example, if you were to make a $25 trade on Kyler Murray to win Comeback Player of the Year, that would be a payout of $157.58. Or if you wanted to get even crazier and go for Justin Jefferson to win Offensive Player of the Year, that simple $25 trade would give you a payout of $335.28. So if you are interested in trying out Kolshe, use the link in the description or pinned comment, trade $25 with Code Digest NFL, and get $25 added to your account instantly. With that, let's hop into the first topic of the day, which is the Harrison Smith truth revealed as Mike Garofalo was on NFL Network earlier today talking about the circumstances surrounding the Harrison Smith signing, how it kind of happened, and more of the details on his contract. One of the big things that he kind of jumped into on the show as well was saying that head coach Kevin O'Connell as well as defensive coordinator Brian Flores pushed hard to get this deal done. And it is a really good number for a guy who was just sitting out there as he's getting a very big contract with a lot of incentives added to it, stating that the full details of his contract being that now he's got some incentives on top of that. Some of that $12.25 million is what they call per game roster bonuses, meaning he's got to be active for those games. Which hasn't typically been a problem for Harrison Smith as he's played many, many games and is one of the top 5 longest streaks of games played for the Minnesota Vikings, or just total games played for the Vikings I should say, and as well as his snap count being very high throughout his career. This has been a remarkably consistent guy who's played anywhere from 90-100% of the snaps for most of his career. It went down to 85% last year and my understanding is it might be even a little bit less, but Harrison Smith is in great shape and believes that he's going to be ready to play against the Packers in this game on Week 1. So right off the bat, there's so many things to be excited about with what Mike Garofalo was saying. One of the things that I'd love to hear is that Kevin O'Connell, obviously we know that Kevin O'Connell wanted Harrison Smith back and this deal wouldn't have happened if not, but with all the interview questions that he was asked about Harrison Smith, the conversations he was having with him and things like that, you could tell, and Kevin O'Connell didn't make it a secret saying that he would love to have Harrison Smith back, but with hearing that him and Brian Flores were pushing so hard to try and get this deal done and to bring Harry back, goes to show that Kevin O'Connell was wanting Harrison Smith back even more than he was leading on and even Brian Flores as well because in almost every single interview or press conference that these guys gave until Harrison Smith signed yesterday and he's probably going to have even more questions brought up as the kind of press conferences start getting going this week and things like that, but ever since that kind of happened, ever since last season ended, every single press conference and every single interview for Brian Flores or Kevin O'Connell or even Nolan Teasley for that matter and Rob Rosinski, Harrison Smith was brought up at least once almost every single time and for good reason obviously, but every single time Minnesota was playing their cards close to the chess obviously, but they were very upfront and blunt about wanting Harrison Smith back, missing his presence in the building, but they never discreetly said they were pushing to get him back because if they did, a lot of teams probably would have gone out there and said hey, let's try and take Harrison Smith off the market, but I also do not think Harrison Smith would have gone with any other team because he is a lifelong Viking and as well as one of the things that's circulating online right now, there's an old clip from a video that was showing kind of like his life behind the scenes and his training regimen and the things that he does to keep his body in shape and a lot of people are looking at that saying this is why we're confident that he's going to be fine and when I saw that video a couple of years ago, that gave me the confidence that Harrison Smith is going to play absolutely until the wheels fall off and until he is satisfied with where he's at in his playing career and I think that he knows that he has a little bit of unfinished business left as if the Vikings were to pull off a miracle and win the Super Bowl this year, it does not give a single doubt in my mind that Harrison Smith will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. I know a lot of Vikings fans, they're obviously going to say that he's already a first ballot Hall of Famer, but I think in the eyes of everyone else around the NFL and in the league, they would absolutely view him as a first ballot guy and I think with him having a lower snap count this year, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, obviously he's a bit of an older guy, you want to make sure that he's in there for the critical snaps, less so than the earlier in the game or things like that when the game is getting out of hand, but it also opens a door for the proper mentorship and development of these young safeties in this Vikings depth chart where if Harrison is going down to 85% snap count, it gives more opportunities for Jacoby Thomas, it gives more opportunities for Jacob Thomas, it gives more opportunities for Jay Ward and Theo Jackson, all to get their opportunities to show that once Harrison Smith is done after this year, because this will be his last year, that goes to show that hey, when he leaves, we are ready to hold up that mantle and to pick up where he left off, so I think that's going to be great for the Vikings this season. As far as the full details of his contract, there was a really good post that was put out on Twitter, kind of breaking down all the things that are going to be the incentives with Harry's salary, where the baseline cash, $8 million, regular season value at a maximum is $12 to $12.25 million, with the playoff incentives and the ceiling being at $16.25 and up to $4 million in reported in-per-game roster bonuses, with 15 games played in 2025, the vast majority likely carries over to the likely to be earned for 2026, and with the bonuses, this is the big caveat for Minnesota, is tying millions into active game day bonuses protects the front office, ensuring Smith's actual cash pay scales directly with his health while shielding future cap space if he misses time, and that is what I absolutely love about this, is that Minnesota, while it seems like they are paying him a boatload of money for being an older guy that was just sitting on a couch, which, I don't think he was sitting on a couch, he was training let's be honest, but for them to go out and pay this guy this much money, it seems like it's a lot more than they're actually paying, but a lot of it has to do with those per-game roster bonuses, which I think with Harry's health and consistency he'll be just fine at making those, the Vikings will be paying it anyways, but at least it's a fail-safe for the Vikings should things go wrong, knock on wood, that Minnesota will be protected. As far as the implications, as far as Harrison Smith joining the roster, the spot for adding Smith on the 53-man roster was created as second-year tight end Ben Uriasek was placed on injured reserve. The Vikings also released safety Khalif Halassie from their practice squad as Uriasek appeared in 12 games in 2025 as an undrafted rookie free agent, making two catches for 14 yards, so he's going to be on the IR, so once he's designated for return, I'm sure he'll either go to the practice squad, or the Vikings will move someone else down or put them on IR by that point if there's injuries to make sure that Harrison Smith stays on this roster because let's be honest, nothing's going to be changing as far as that goes as far as where Harrison Smith is staying on the roster, it's just a matter of who is going to be moved from the roster to make sure that Harry stays on it, but let us know down in the comments below what you guys thought about the Harrison Smith contract, if you guys love it, if you hate it, I think no one's going to be able to hate this contract, even though it is paying a lot of money, we knew that if they were going to bring Harrison Smith back it was going to be a decent amount of coin, but we're just happy that Harrison Smith is back in the long run because this is what Vikings fans have been wanting all offseason. Let us know down in the comments below as that's going to take us into the second topic which is Justin Jefferson for Offensive Player of the Year, now this was a small little thing that happened on Good Morning Football where the panel was going around talking about players that they think will be Offensive Player of the Years this year, and then Manti Teo got up to the mic and this is where Vikings fans got very very excited, saying let's go through the criteria first, number one, Offensive Player of the Year is a non-quarterback, check, my guy got that, he has the ability, obviously, check, more importantly he has to have the reliability, the team has to rely on him heavily, he definitely has that, and last but not least he has to have that supporting cast, and this year he does have that, but of course the biggest thing what differentiates that from last year is the word motive, last year there were some frustrations from the quarterback play, there are a lot of things that go into a wide receiver in order for them to be successful, a very good quarterback is one of those, this year he has that, and the biggest thing as well is that they also put him on a list, not at the very top of that list, and he took that very very personal this year, and there is a quote that says revenge is a dish best served cold, and I think it gets pretty cold in Minnesota, Justin Jefferson you are my Offensive Player of the Year for this year, and I think that Justin Jefferson being as pissed off as he is going into this year, so when you look at the Madden ratings, he was the number 4 rated wide receiver, not that I give Madden any credence, I don't think that game has been good since 2012, so I don't think about those Madden ratings very much to be honest, but as far as the top 10 wide receiver list that was put out for this year, or even the NFL top 100 list, Justin Jefferson was at his lowest ranking that he has ever been in his career, and this is a guy that still managed to put up 1000 yards when he had 3 different quarterbacks in play this year, and those quarterbacks were JJ McCarthy, Max Brosmer, and Carson Wentz, still managed to get to 1000 yards, it took till the end of the year, but he still got there and continues his dominant streak. So my only question is, the only thing that would disqualify him from winning another Offensive Player of the Year is if the quarterback play isn't there, but even when the quarterback play isn't there, even when he had 5 different quarterbacks going through there in a year, he still was able to put up 1000 yards, so it's just a matter of get the ball in Justin Jefferson's vicinity, and he's going to come down with it, and I think with all that chip on his shoulder from last year where everyone was saying that, oh, he doesn't have it, or just like he wasn't as good, or things like that, and a lot of fantasy drafts he slipped probably to the end of the first round, into the second round in some cases, so that's a scenario where he has a chance to absolutely put on a clinic this year, and shock a lot of people with the Offensive Player of the Year award. Manti Te'o did close it out with this saying that Justin Jettis Jefferson will be the Offensive Player of the Year this year, it's early, it's warm in Minnesota, but it's about to get cold for those DBs out there on an island with that boy, number 18 is coming, he will be a nightmare, let's go Justin Jefferson, and I personally cannot wait for this football season to finally kick off, we are so so so close to kicking off against the Green Bay Packers in week 1 at US Bank Stadium, and it is going to be rocking, the crowd is going to be loud for Harrison Smith, Justin Jefferson is going to look to put on an absolute clinic against that Packers secondary, and Kylan Murray is looking to make his start in his campaign for Comeback Player of the Year, but let us know down in the comments below what you guys have to think about all this, I'd love to hear all the conversations and discussions with the Vikings fans and in that sphere going on throughout the year, as it's going to be a very fun one, so stay tuned to Vikings Digest, you won't want to miss any of that, and thank you to Kolshe for sponsoring this video, but for now, I've been your host Griffin, take care.