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Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith is poised to join an illustrious group during Week 11\u2019s matchup with the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n
A 14-year NFL veteran, Smith is set to play in his 200th career game on Sunday at home, the team announced on Thursday, November 13. After missing the first two games of the season due to a personal health issue, Smith will become the sixth Vikings player to reach the landmark number, joining the late Jim Marshall, Mick Tinglehoff, Fred Cox, Carl Eller and Scott Studwell.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
.@harrismith22 is set to play in his 200th career game on Sunday. He will become the sixth player to reach 200 career games with the Vikings, joining Jim Marshall, Mick Tinglehoff, Fred Cox, Carl Eller and Scott Studwell.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s 200th career game is a testament to not only his sustained success over 14 seasons in the NFL but also his health and love for the game. Smith has played 13 or more games for 12 of the past 13 seasons.<\/p>\n
Smith is the NFL\u2019s active leader in interceptions with 37 picks in his career. This season is likely Smith\u2019s final season as a player, with his contract set to expire next year.<\/p>\n
Smith has had one of the most impressive runs at the safety position in NFL history, but the bar to reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame is daunting, even with his resume.<\/p>\n
The hall of fame has a backlog of incredible talents who may never get the recognition they deserve due to the weight championships play in the selection.<\/p>\n
Smith has the personal accolades.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has more sacks and interceptions than Hall of Famers John Lynch and Troy Polamalu. He has six Pro Bowls, which is more than Hall of Fame finalist Rodney Harrison, 2023 inductee Ronde Barber, 2022 inductee Leroy Butler,\u201d Purple Insider\u2019s Matthew Coller wrote. \u201cNo other active safety has six Pro Bowls and Earl Thomas is the only player who started post 2010 with more (7).\u201d<\/p>\n
The analytics show that Smith has made an immense impact on the team for over a decade. However, the Pro Football Hall of Fame has begun to narrow its classes to preserve itself as the highest honor of football.<\/p>\n
But that won\u2019t stop many of the game\u2019s greats from advocating for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s Hall of Fame worthy,\u201d defensive coordinator Brian Flores told Coller. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say \u2018cemented\u2019 that but there should be conversation around that whenever he decides to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, Smith has 1,157 combined tackles,43 tackles for loss, 20.5 sacks, 13 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries, 99 passes defensed, 37 interceptions and four pick-sixes.<\/p>\n
But beyond the numbers, Smith has made an impact with his character on the Vikings\u2019 organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarrison Smith is one of my all-time favorite players I\u2019ve had the chance to be around as a coach,\u201d head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell said in 2024. \u201cI feel very fortunate to have been in the head coach position with a guy like Harrison that I can build a relationship with, such experience, such an incredible presence within our locker room. He\u2019s got a great way about him at all times that makes people around him better. I think he\u2019s been huge in the implementation of our defense this year with Flo [Brian Flores] and D.J. [Daronte Jones] and those guys on that side of the ball. I\u2019ve been really happy with the way Harrison has really attacked his role within the defense, but also the value of him as a captain and a leader of our team. I just can\u2019t say enough about what he\u2019s meant to me, what he\u2019s meant to this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Leonard<\/strong> may have played his best game as a member of the Washington Capitals on Thursday night, and he did so in a 6-3 loss where he didn\u2019t get on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n At the end of regulation, Leonard played 15:08 of ice time and fired seven shots on goal, the most he has recorded in a single game. He had nine shot attempts overall, four individual scoring chances, one individual high-danger chance, one shot block, and several impressive zone entries and plays along the wall.<\/p>\n \u201cI look upfront, I thought Ryan Leonard had his best game as a pro, to be honest with you,\u201d Monumental Sports Network\u2019s Craig Laughlin said postgame. \u201cHis skating, his shooting. He was making moves. He looked very comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps Leonard\u2019s nicest highlight of the night came early in the second period after he picked up a pass from Rasmus Sandin in the neutral zone. The 2023 first-round pick dangled around defenseman Donovan Sebrango at the blueline, curled the puck around the stick of Jeff Petry, and was only done in by one of many brilliant saves from Panthers netminder Daniil Tarasov.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know the total shots or whatever, but yeah, we had a lot of really good looks,\u201d Leonard\u00a0said after the loss. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s tough sometimes when the puck\u2019s not really going in at the start of the game, and then their goalie starts to feel it a little bit, and it\u2019s honestly the last thing you want when a goalie gets confident like that. So he played great, but we\u2019ve got to find a way to put those pucks past him with that many shots.\u201d<\/p>\n After the Capitals were unable to put away many of their chances in the first two periods, head coach Spencer Carbery threw his forward lines into a blender and put Leonard with Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier. The third-year bench boss,\u00a0who recently stated that he is trying to pick his spots better with Leonard, remarked that he liked what he saw from the new trio, which could hint at a more permanent promotion for Leonard in the coming games.<\/p>\n \u201cLiked Leonard when we moved him with Strome there in the third period,\u201d Carbery\u00a0said. \u201c[He] had some good opportunities at the net front that sets up our third goal. I liked a lot of what the combinations in the third did.\u201d<\/p>\n Leonard has eight points (3g, 5a) through 17 games in his rookie NHL campaign. He has 12 shots on goal combined in his last two games and ranks fifth among Capitals forwards in total shots (35) this season. His 22.9 shot attempts per 60 minutes rank first on the club, just ahead of Alex Ovechkin (22.8).<\/p>\n Among all NHL players in the league, he ranks sixth in the stat, topped only by Cutter Gauthier (26.1), Tage Thompson (26.0), Alex DeBrincat (24.9), David Pastrnak (23.7), and Nikita Kucherov (22.9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith is poised to join an illustrious group during Week 11\u2019s matchup with the Chicago Bears. A 14-year NFL veteran, Smith is set to play in his 200th…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t