Some people had questions about what Za’Darius Smith had left in the tank after a back injury limited him to two games for the Packers last season, but the Vikings signed him and found that there’s plenty left in the edge rusher’s tank.
Smith has had at least a half-sack in all but one of the Vikings’ games this year and he set a season-high against the Cardinals in Week Eight. Smith dropped Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray three times in a 34-26 win that lifted Minnesota to 6-1 on the season.
That led PFT to make Smith our defensive player of the week and the NFL has named him as the NFC defensive player of the week as well.
Smith now has 8.5 sacks on the year and continued success as a pass rusher should serve him well when it comes time to hand out postseason accolades.
