Harrison Smith is the MVP of the Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have a series of Pro Bowlers, but the team’s MVP wasn’t named to the team.

I love NBC’s production of NFL games. It’s a beautiful production and that is not even considering the great announcing team of Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Michelle Tafoya. Along with the beautiful graphics and great song choices, during the starting lineup announcements the screen shows every player’s Pro Football Focus rating and where they rank in their position group. Some rankings are surprising, but not shocking was that Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith held a top ranking.

Of course, what was more shocking was the absolute snub that was given to Smith when the Pro Bowl players were announced this past week. The Pro Bowl doesn’t matter, it has become quite the joke, but what does matter is how much a player affects their team. Smith is a huge influence on the whole team and would be my vote for the team’s MVP.

Not that Saturday night was a great display of a football game, but Smith found himself everywhere. Smith intercepted two Brett Hundley passed and was right there to defend and break up a bunch more throughout the evening in the harsh Wisconsin weather.

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Not only is Smith a great player as a solo artist, but he absolutely makes the Vikings secondary and defensive unit as a whole so much better. There are a lot of studs on the defensive side of the ball for Minnesota, but nobody would be as effective as they currently are if Smith wasn’t playing in the backfield.

Smith, obviously, isn’t getting the credit he deserves right now around the league, but his teammates should be more than thankful that they have Smith on their team, a team that actually matters and that will be a force to be reckoned with.

So far, Smith has been saying all of the right things about not being selected to the Pro Bowl. The beautiful thing is that with Smith as the main cog to the Vikings defense, he might just propel the Vikings to a place where no members of the purple will be playing in the Pro Bowl.

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The Vikings face off with the Chicago Bears in the last game of the regular season on New Year’s Eve. The game from U.S. Bank Stadium is set for a noon kick. How many starters will play legitimate minutes will be a sight to see.