Looking at the Vikings safeties room for 2025, does it seem like it is a weak spot on the roster?

Hitman is in his 14th year, and the rest of the room looks like average to below average.

Will the Vikings add to the room, or do the coaches feel this is good enough?

— Dan S. in Perham, Minnesota

I don’t know if everyone managed to catch our camp preview series last week or not, so I’m dropping in the links to those stories here.

Running Backs and Offensive Line

Harrison Smith is back for his 14th season and set to cross the elite 200-game threshold this season. He was still making plays, whether it was a sack of Aaron Rodgers in London or a seal-the-deal interception in his native Tennessee, last season. He believes in what the Vikings have at the start of the season, and I think that includes the safeties room that is bringing back Joshua Metellus, Theo Jackson and Jay Ward.

Sure, Camryn Bynum departed for a big-money deal, and the Vikings will have to offset the loss of his contributions, but Metellus has shown a bandwidth to handle almost anything from anywhere. According to advanced stats on pro-football-reference.com, Metellus recorded 103 tackles on defense and missed just three, a missed tackle percentage of 2.8 that improved from a rate of 10.1 in 2023.

Smith also has mentioned Jackson as a player whose reserve role said more about the Vikings depth at safety than Jackson’s status. He played just 78 snaps on defense, so the sample size is small. Jackson, however, did well in coverage. According to pro-football-reference.com, he was targeted seven times and allowed four completions for 64 yards. Throw in his interception at Seattle, and his passer rating allowed was a paltry 48.2. I have the benefit of seeing Jackson in camp last year, and if he picks up where he left off, he should be primed to contribute nicely.

Ward has logged more than 300 special teams snaps in each of his first two seasons and showed a good bit of versatility in college.

Newcomer Tavierre Thomas (listed as a DB) has carved a role on special teams at past spots, and the Vikings likely have that vision for him. The only other safety on the roster is undrafted free agent Mishael Powell. He’ll no doubt be evaluated with the rest of the roster during camp.

Teams always self-evaluate to see if their rosters can be improved at any position, but I wouldn’t classify the group of returnees as “below average.”