Harrison Smith agrees to new contract with Vikings
— -- MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Vikings agreed to a contract extension with safety Harrison Smith on Monday morning, the team announced.
Smith will earn $51.25 million over the next five years, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, including a $10 million signing bonus. Smith's deal includes $28.578 million guaranteed against injury and runs through 2021, a league source told ESPN's Ben Goessling. Smith was already scheduled to play on his fifth-year option this year.
The terms of the new deal would make Smith the highest-paid safety in the league.
The 2012 first-round pick made his first Pro Bowl last season, a year after he tied for third in the NFL with five interceptions. Smith also had three sacks in 2014 and had established himself as one of the fixtures of Mike Zimmer's defense.
Smith was on the field for 746 of the Vikings' 1,015 defensive snaps last season (73.5 percent). Minnesota allowed a Total QBR of 47.2 with him on the field but a QBR of 78.7 without him, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
The Vikings had been budgeting for Smith's deal for several years; they had expressed interest the past two offseasons in the New England Patriots' Devin McCourty and the Cincinnati Bengals' George Iloka in free agency, but they bowed out once the price got too expensive for them to put one of those safeties next to Smith.
The 27-year-old, whom the Vikings selected out of Notre Dame with the 29th pick in the 2012 draft, already holds a team record with four interception returns for touchdowns.
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