Za’Darius Smith’s 2022 season was a tale of two halves with the Minnesota Vikings. The first half was dominant, with the former All-Pro edge rusher averaging 5.5 pressures per game in Weeks 1-10 before seeing those pressures plummet to 3.8 per game over the final six weeks.
Smith, who had just two pressures in Minnesota’s playoff loss to the Giants, was asked Wednesday about his second-half slump and blamed it on an ailing knee that he couldn’t fully rest because he had to play every game in order to earn bonus money.
“A lot of people didn’t know it, [but in] my contract, I had it where I had to play every game to get my bonus. So in certain situations, coaches just telling me ‘give it all you can and then we’ll just rest you from there.’ So I wasn’t as effective as I was at the beginning of the season, but I’m all healthy now, [and] ready to go,” Smith said, who was traded to the Browns last month.
Smith said he earned about $200,000 in bonus money every game he played.
“I couldn’t rest last year because every game I think was making like $200,000 just to dress up. You would dress up, too, right? Exactly. I had a chance to rest my knee, get some rehab,” he said. “I feel perfectly fine.”
Smith signed a three-year, $42 million deal with the Vikings in 2022. Trading him saved the Vikings more than $13 million against the cap and opened the door for Marcus Davenport to fill Smith’s role as an outside linebacker in defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ scheme.
Smith said his contract “wasn’t set up right” with the Vikings. What did he mean by that?
“It was the guaranteed part. The first year was only guaranteed, so now I’m basically in the same situation but it’s OK now because I get a chance to go into free agency next year. “
