Report: Vikings Might Start Rookie S Harrison Smith Friday Against Bills

From the "No one should be surprised by this at all" files, ESPN 1500's Tom Pelissero reports that the Vikings are seriously considering Harrison Smith as one of the starting safeties on Friday against the Bills in the Vikes pre-season home opener.

Watching Jamarca Sanford and Mistral Raymond Friday was about as pleasing on the eye as watching Tsuyoshi Nishioka bat or field for the Twins, and after their underwhelming performance in San Francisco, putting Smith in the starting lineup seems almost a foregone conclusion. I was of the opinion that the Vikings didn't move back into the first round to let him sit for a year, and he's been steadily moving up the depth chart as training camp has gone on.

But Smith only solves--maybe--one of the safety positions. What little I saw of him looked good, but he is a rookie and he'll have a learning curve. I don't see it hurting, though, as inserting Smith in the lineup is, if nothing else, addition by subtraction. Raymond and Sanford looked very tentative and confused the few series they were in, and Smith had more positive plays than those two combined.

So the Youth Movement continues with the Vikings, as another rookie looks to take a starting job.

Are you guys on board with this, or are the Vikings over reacting to one pre-season game?