With every catch made and tackler avoided, buzz increased around tight end Irv Smith Jr. during Vikings training camp last season.
Smith appeared to put a bow on a promising offseason in the preseason finale at Kansas City. He played just 11 snaps. They featured a shallow crosser he turned into a 23-yard gain, another short toss for a 16-yard catch and run, and a run block resulting in the meniscus injury that ended his bid for a breakout campaign before it even started.
"I just felt like my knee kind of buckled a little bit," Smith recalled Tuesday during his first news conference since the injury, "and I really didn't think it was nothing too serious, but it was.