Mike Zimmer spoke from the combine about the kind of safety he’d like to line up alongside Harrison Smith.
Thursday morning a reporter asked Mike Zimmer the question that has been on a lot of Vikings fans’ minds this offseason. To paraphrase, “Hey Mike, are you finally going to get a good safety to play alongside Harrison Smith?”
Zimmer’s answer was, in classic coach-speak fashion, simultaneously illuminating and worthless (via Vikings.com):
"Well I think this. If Harrison Smith was paired with a guy that had some other qualities we could allow Harrison to be more of an impact player … I think Harrison could be more impactful if he had the right kind of guy next to him."
The reporter followed up by asking if this “right kind of guy” is already on the roster, to which Zimmer replied “I don’t know.”
Some may read that as a shot at the Vikings’ current roster of non-Harrison-Smith safeties, including pending free agents Andrew Sendejo and Robert Blanton and young pups Antone Exum and Anthony Harris, but why would Zimmer bother taking shots at those players?
To me this is more a case of Zimmer trying to answer a question honestly without giving anything away.
Honestly, Mike Zimmer has a plan in mind for how he’d like to use his safeties. He knows Harrison Smith is a good player with a versatile skill-set and he’d like to find another safety who can do certain things that will allow him to use Harrison Smith in a way that maximizes Smith’s potential.
The next logical question is, what kind of safety is this “right kind of safety” to line up alongside Harrison Smith?
Is it someone Zimmer can trust to leave in single-high coverage, allowing the coach to send Smith on more blitzes?
Is it someone whose skill-set mirrors Smith’s, so Zimmer can more often leave Smith deep and trust that the guy on the other side can do whatever he’s called upon to do?
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It in the end it really isn’t about Smith at all, it’s about getting players Zimmer can fit into his scheme. Zimmer answered the reporter’s question but we still don’t really know any more than we did before about the type of safety the Vikings might pursue in free agency or the draft.
So, feel free to continue speculating.