Vikings notes: Smith on track to play, Greenway uncertain

Safety Harrison Smith appears to be on track to play on Sunday for the Vikings, while linebacker Chad Greenway's status against the Lions remains uncertain.

Smith participated in practice for the first time this week after spraining his left ankle in last Thursday's 42-10 loss against the Packers. He was a limited participant but was the last player off the field after catching passes off a JUGS machine. Smith was on crutches with a walking boot in his left foot just a week ago.

"He's healed pretty quick," coach Mike Zimmer said. "He's been good, but yeah, he's tough. He's a tough guy."

Zimmer remained optimistic that he'll play against the Lions, but the same can't be said about Greenway, who spend his second consecutive practice working with head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman outside. The linebacker hasn't participated in practice all week, recovering from hand and rib injures, and could possibly miss his third consecutive game because of injuries.

"We're going to see where he's at [Friday] at practice and go from there," Zimmer said.

There have been times where defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd has displayed his first-round ability, and there are other moments where Floyd is the exact opposite player. Through five games, Zimmer has preached consistency to Floyd, along with the rest of the young players.

"He's very contentious, sometimes too contentious," Zimmer said. "He needs to just let it loose a little bit and free flow it. He's still a young developing player as well, and the splash plays show the ability he has. We just got to work to be more consistent."

"It's when guys are young like that, I can probably say that about a lot of these young guys about the consistency factor," Zimmer said. "I think that's part of growing up."

Rookie safety Antone Exum Jr. and rookie Jabari Price haven't had too many opportunities to make a difference on defense, but they've been heavily relied upon over the past three weeks in all phases on special teams.

Most probably didn't recognize their presence on special teams until last week, when both were penalized. Price, a seventh-round pick, was called for holding that negated a 56-yard kickoff return by Cordarrelle Patterson. Exum, a sixth-round pick, was penalized for an illegal block in the back on cornerback Marcus Sherels' 11-yard punt return.

"I take it personally," Price said. "You're always talking about 'what if' returns in our room, what if this guy did this or what if this guy did that. You don't want to be the guy when you come back on Monday as the reason why we didn't score."

Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer said that both Price and Exum are going through growing pains with some of their rookie mistakes, but they've carried a good attitude and have prepared well.

Defensive coordinator George Edwards said rookie linebacker Anthony Barr is as good a rookie as he's had in 17 seasons coaching in the NFL.

"He's probably as high of a draft pick as I've had at linebacker, so that says a lot, too," Edwards said.

Barr has opened some eyes. In his third season playing linebacker at any level, the rookie is tied for second on the team in tackles (29) and sacks (two).

"He's ahead of the curve and with his professionalism, to be able to have that at such a young age, pay attention to details, being able to do it on the practice field, do it in the game," Edwards said. "From that aspect of it, it's just a matter of him continuing to get experience, keep working and keep getting the production that he has."