Earlier this offseason, the Minnesota Vikings restructured the contract of Harrison Smith. It dropped his salary cap hit from over $19 million to a reasonable $7,315,882. Considering Smith is going into his age 35 season, that felt like a fair price for the former All Pro.
While his contract hasn't changed for 2024, it seems that instead of restructuring the deal with void years, the Vikings extended Smith through the 2028 season with no guarantees other than the $7 million signing bonus he received.
Smith is set to received a base salary in 2026 that will become fully guaranteed if he is on the team on the third day of the 2025 league year. That isn't going to happen so the Vikings will have to find a way to work a deal if they were to keep him on the active roster for the 2025 season.
The theory here is this: an extension allows them to play with the money more than it would with void years. We know general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah loves his flexibility and he gets that here with Smith.
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