Analysis: What the Vikings’ Harrison Smith thinks about those pessimistic purple predictions

The sample size is small, but this has the makings of a long year for the prognosticators who picked the Vikings to finish 6-11.

As one of them, this thought came to mind while approaching Harrison Smith in the Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium locker room after Sunday’s 23-17 upset win over the defending NFC champion 49ers.

Smith is 35, a veteran of 13 seasons. He’s been here when the Vikings were “supposed” to stink but made the playoffs, like 2012. He’s been here when the Vikings were “supposed” to be great but stunk, like 2018. He’s been here when they were “supposed” to start fast but were 0-3, like last year. And he’s here now when they were “supposed” to start slow and disappear but are 2-0, sounding noisemakers throughout the NFL and looking down at Detroit, Green Bay and Chicago in the NFC North.

“Two-and-zero, just like we all predicted, right?” this prognosticator said to Harry.

“Exactly,” Smith said before coaxing a confession out of this prognosticator — a 6-11 guess that Harry apparently didn’t read and tape to his locker for motivation.

“Six and 11!?” said Smith, shaking his head.

Um, yeah, but in my defense, it didn’t sound nearly as bad at 11:59 a.m. Central time on Sept. 8.

“We got a lot of good players, man,” Smith said. “We added a lot of really good players. Defensively, you look around. The pass rush. What [defensive coordinator Brian] Flores is doing. [Stephon] Gilmore. He’s older [33], but would you want to throw at him? No one does.”

Yeah, but, but, but …

“Sam Darnold,” this prognosticator blurted to justify 6-11. “I just didn’t buy it.”

Smith countered that coach Kevin O’Connell “is really good with those guys,” meaning quarterbacks.

The beauty of Smith’s personality is he gets how this all works. As laid-back off the field as he is ferocious between the lines, Smith knows predictions aren’t personal. They’re essentially entertainment. And truthful predictions like “Heck if I know” aren’t very entertaining.

We’re two weeks into the 2024 season and O’Connell is front-runner for coach of the year while Darnold is a leader for comeback player of the year and/or MVP. That’s being facetious, obviously, but poo-poo any predictions at your own risk at this point.

Darnold posted a 113.2 passer rating in a win at the Giants. Then he notched 109.1 in Sunday’s victory. The only other time he has had passer ratings of 109.1 or better in consecutive games was Weeks 11-12 of the 2019 season with the Jets, who you may have heard unwisely drafted him third overall in 2018.

Those two games in 2019 came during a three-game winning streak, something Darnold has done only twice as an NFL starter. If the Vikings beat Houston at home on Sunday, Darnold will head to Green Bay looking for the first four-game win streak of his pro career.

Raise your hand if you thought that was a possibility when the Vikings brought in this guy and his sub-60 completion percentage (he’s at 72% this year, by the way), 56 interceptions and 21-35 record.

O’Connell has spent some time the last couple of weeks answering questions about his confidence in Darnold considering Darnold is, well, how should we put this, Sam freaking Darnold.

“I don’t really have an interest in talking about the past with Sam Darnold,” O’Connell said. “I think we all need to start being totally present, and when he plays well, like he has, I think we just talk about a guy playing the position at a high level and move on.”

That might be the best piece of advice O’Connell has ever given publicly about predictions and pre-judging a player. It was smart. Logical. Spot-on.

And spoken by someone who has never had to reach for a white flag while trying to defend 6-11 as one of the best safeties in franchise history enjoys a 2-0 start for only the second time in his 13 seasons.

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