Za'Darius Smith Reveals Frustrations With His Vikings Contract

Smith, now with the Browns, says his Vikings contract "wasn't set up right."

Former Vikings edge rusher Za'Darius Smith spoke to reporters as a member of his new team, the Browns, for the first time this week, and he had some interesting things to say about what went down in 2022.

Smith signed a three-year deal with the Vikings last offseason and got off to a red-hot start with 9.5 sacks in the first nine games of the season. Then he picked up a minor knee injury against the Bills in Week 10 and it affected his play down the stretch, as he had just half a sack the rest of the way.

Sitting out for a bit to rest his knee may have been the best option for Smith, but he didn't want to sacrifice his per-game roster bonuses — and the team clearly thought he was healthy enough to continue playing.

"Lot of people didn't know, in my contract, I had it to where I had to play every game to get my bonus," Smith said. "Certain situations, coach was just telling me 'Give it all you can and then we'll just rest you from there.' I wasn't as effective as I was at the beginning of the season, but I'm all healthy now and ready to go.

"I couldn't rest last year because every game, I think I was making like $200,000 just to dress up. You would dress up too, right? Exactly."

This offseason, Smith made it known that he was unhappy with his contract, essentially forcing the Vikings to trade or release him. They ended up dealing him to the Browns for a couple late-round pick swaps.

According to Smith, the structure of the contract "wasn't set up right" due to how the guarantees were structured.

"For one, it wasn't set up right," he said. "The guaranteed part. The first year was the only guarantee. So now I'm basically in the same situation but it's OK now because I can get a chance to go into free agency next year."

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