Vikings Waive Cameron Smith With Non-Football Injury, Expect Him to Clear Waivers

The Vikings have waived second-year linebacker Cameron Smith with a non-football injury designation, the team announced on Monday.

Smith recently revealed that he is having open-heart surgery to fix a congenital heart defect that doctors discovered after he tested positive for COVID-19. This is a procedural move required by the NFL because Smith is not a vested veteran.

"Per NFL procedures, to move Cam Smith from the Vikings active roster to their reserve/non-football injury (NFI) list, the team must first subject him to waivers," the Vikings said in their press release. "Should he clear waivers, he will revert to the Vikings reserve/NFI list."

The Vikings reportedly expect Smith to clear waivers, which will allow them to add him to their injured reserve in roughly 24 hours.

Smith will likely be paid his $675,000 base salary for the 2020 season despite being inactive, according to Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.

On Saturday, the 2019 fifth-round pick from USC took to Instagram to announce that he needs open-heart surgery. Smith also shared that he has no plans of giving up on his football career.

"Earlier this week I found out I need open heart surgery to fix a bicuspid aortic valve that I was born with," Smith wrote. "Although this will unfortunately end my 2020 season, it is really a blessing that we found this as my heart is severely enlarged and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I found this out after I tested positive for COVID and had to have further testing done as protocol. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I could really feel him on this one! There is a surgery that will allow me to continue to play football as soon as I am healed and cleared and I didn’t think twice about going with that one. By no means am I ready to be done playing football, there is still so much more I want to accomplish on the field. I'm going to attack this like everything else I have in life. Already looking forward to the comeback!"

Smith shared a follow-up post on Sunday.

"I just want to say thank you to everyone for all of the support I have received over the last 24 hours, it means more to me than most of you may know! I also have realized how many people have been affected in some way by BAV and all of you that reached out to share your stories has given me strength beyond belief! ⁣Bumps in the road are apart of life, but how you attack them is all that really matters. You can coast through and land safely or pin that son of a gun and launch off that bump as if it was only there to put you further ahead.⁣ I’m all smiles over here and I wouldn’t be this way with out the lord and my support system! I’ll keep everyone as updated as possible. I’m coming out on the other side stronger than ever."

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