Minnesota Vikings Podcasts

E50: Pocket Protectors [Was Harrison Smith Snubbed?]

Eric Eager and Nick Olson join Jayson Brown to discuss Harrison Smith’s exclusion from NFL.com’s All-Decade Team and what a perfect draft for the Vikings might look like.

By GreatOdinsRaven@brownjayson Apr 9, 2020, 8:00am CDT

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In this episode:

To start this episode, we get caught up with Eric and Nick and get into the topic of Harrison Smith being snubbed from the NFL.com All-Decade Team.

The NFL's 2010s All-Decade Team Defense! pic.twitter.com/kRyIiiuTEH
— NFL (@NFL) April 6, 2020

Nick makes a very compelling argument as to why Harrison Smith is more deserving than Eric Berry and others.

Harrison Smith has played more snaps in the decade than Berry, but nevertheless gave up nine fewer touchdowns (13 v 22), gave up 500 less career yards (1673 v 2153), had seven more interceptions (23 v 16), twice as many pressures (65 v 38), twice as many sacks (14 v 6)...
— Nick Olson (@NickOlsonNFL) April 6, 2020

Smith has the lower career missed tackle %, 31 more stops (200 to 169), a much lower career passer rating when targeted (59.7% v 87.5%), more forced fumbles, a lower completion % allowed

Berry did commit one fewer career penalty tho, I'll give you that
— Nick Olson (@NickOlsonNFL) April 6, 2020

Eric defends Tyrann Mathieu based on his impact across multiple teams and then took us down memory lane to let us know which safeties were the best last decade based on WAR

Eric Weddle
Jason McCourty
Earl Thomas
Harrison Smith
Malcolm Jenkins
Glover Quin
Kam Chancellor
Reggie Nelson
Jairus Byrd
Antoine Bethea

Next up, we discuss tape vs analytics vs PFF and how we can best utilize these resources to maximize our understanding of football. Eric discusses how PFF incorporates the lessons from specialists like Duke Manyweather and Brandon Thorn into their process to create scale.