I rarely watch college, but I understand that DS's weight make him an extreme outlier.
The one potential issue that I never see discussed is the importance of downfield blocking for our all-world (assuming he recovers fully) RB, who should be getting a lot of touches. We love Sterling Shepard's downfield blocks that can often spring a good run into a chunk play, but I wonder about DS's ability to block. (I understand that this is towards the end of qualities that you look for in a WR, but still.)
The number one priority for a WR is catching the ball, not blocking. Evan Engram can't block or catch, but he is still on the team. I would rather have a WR that can do one of those things well than EE every day of the week and 5 times on Sunday.
I don't see Smith as a slot, though I suspect they'll move him around to exploit mismatches. He's a #1 who'll compete with Golladay from the start.
But I think it's academic unless the Giants trade up. He's unlikely to fall out of the top 10, and may well go in the top 5.
He's not frail. His build and stride reminds me a lot of a WR from 40 years ago when DB's would still routinely clothes-line WR's, batter them with elbows, and do just about anything short of beating them with baseball bats. AH, the good old days!
Anyway, that kid had a pretty good career. They used to call him Bambi.
Run Bambi, run! - ( New Window )
"who cares", well I would think anyone with a brain. No, it's not critical but I'll always believe that Plax helped Tiki's game and certainly it's a factor.
Likely 170 lbs is very generous The rumor was the kid didn't participate in the pro day because he was under 170. And it's spread over a relatively tall frame, borne on spindly and maybe fragile legs.
It's not just the effectiveness, it's the consequences. 170 (plus or minus) is going to suffer more damages that a more robust 190 with some cushioning.
Then there's the question of jamming Smith. Some of his tape (I'm told, I haven't seen it) shows college CB's jamming him effectively and later bumping him out of bounds.
Will he have to be put in motion on each play to get him downfield and in the flow?
Don't know the answers but even while i see the brilliance there is a potential downside. No idea how to evaluate it all, no idea if he should be the pick or not.
and the not so great players that run a great 40 get elevated
the draft can't happen soon enough
What you are all missing is that he is already strong, 170 lbs or not. He's never going to be Plax strong, but does not need to be. You don't do what he did in the SEC and not be strong.
We are literally talking 5-10 lbs here. AND! there are players that have in fact played at Smith's height and weight and played at an extremely high level.
When you watch this guy play, his weight looks pretty normal to me. And it does to you too..but since you now KNOW his weight, you're worried? Give me a break.
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If blocking is anymore than a footnote when evaluating a WR then your process is broken.
"who cares", well I would think anyone with a brain. No, it's not critical but I'll always believe that Plax helped Tiki's game and certainly it's a factor.
Likely 170 lbs is very generous The rumor was the kid didn't participate in the pro day because he was under 170. And it's spread over a relatively tall frame, borne on spindly and maybe fragile legs.
It's not just the effectiveness, it's the consequences. 170 (plus or minus) is going to suffer more damages that a more robust 190 with some cushioning.
Then there's the question of jamming Smith. Some of his tape (I'm told, I haven't seen it) shows college CB's jamming him effectively and later bumping him out of bounds.
Will he have to be put in motion on each play to get him downfield and in the flow?
Don't know the answers but even while i see the brilliance there is a potential downside. No idea how to evaluate it all, no idea if he should be the pick or not.
This is a forest through the trees thing. Use that big brain of yours to figure out how often in a game that his efficiency as a blocker will truly impact a play and how many yards that inefficiency costs the Giants. Then watch him get chunk yards in the passing game. WRs are paid to get open and catch the football, great blocking WRs don't get big NFL contracts if they can't do the former. They can be the best blocking WR in the league and if they aren't getting yards through the air, they're out of the league. That is what matters.
And the thread was about his downfield blocking, not about getting off the jam. If you want to litigate that, I'd follow the previous posters advice and watch him against Horn. Horn is probably the best press man corner in the draft and he couldn't get his hands on him.
Smith isn't even my preference at 11, I'm on board with Slater. He's not even my preference between the Bama WRs, I would go Slater. But he'd make a fine pick and nitpicking how a WR blocks downfield is peak mid-April discussion.
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In comment 15225302 AcesUp said:
Quote:
If blocking is anymore than a footnote when evaluating a WR then your process is broken.
"who cares", well I would think anyone with a brain. No, it's not critical but I'll always believe that Plax helped Tiki's game and certainly it's a factor.
Likely 170 lbs is very generous The rumor was the kid didn't participate in the pro day because he was under 170. And it's spread over a relatively tall frame, borne on spindly and maybe fragile legs.
It's not just the effectiveness, it's the consequences. 170 (plus or minus) is going to suffer more damages that a more robust 190 with some cushioning.
Then there's the question of jamming Smith. Some of his tape (I'm told, I haven't seen it) shows college CB's jamming him effectively and later bumping him out of bounds.
Will he have to be put in motion on each play to get him downfield and in the flow?
Don't know the answers but even while i see the brilliance there is a potential downside. No idea how to evaluate it all, no idea if he should be the pick or not.
This is a forest through the trees thing. Use that big brain of yours to figure out how often in a game that his efficiency as a blocker will truly impact a play and how many yards that inefficiency costs the Giants. Then watch him get chunk yards in the passing game. WRs are paid to get open and catch the football, great blocking WRs don't get big NFL contracts if they can't do the former. They can be the best blocking WR in the league and if they aren't getting yards through the air, they're out of the league. That is what matters.
And the thread was about his downfield blocking, not about getting off the jam. If you want to litigate that, I'd follow the previous posters advice and watch him against Horn. Horn is probably the best press man corner in the draft and he couldn't get his hands on him.
Smith isn't even my preference at 11, I'm on board with Slater. He's not even my preference between the Bama WRs, I would go Slater. But he'd make a fine pick and nitpicking how a WR blocks downfield is peak mid-April discussion.
Gotta agree with this. I prefer Waddle to Slater, though, but everything else I'm 100% with you on.
Down field blocking does matter and I don't think he can be good at it.
More than one "expert" feels that he will be manhandled by the NFL cornerback and that they will have to keep him in motion to free him up from jams at the LOS. You want to completely discount that based on one game that you saw???
I don't know that any of them are true, don't know that he's not the natural and best pick. But they are fair negatives in discussing the whole package.
He's an outlier, has there ever been anyone in the modern game at 6-1 who weighed 167 and made it big at any position other than kicking?
How can you say that's not a factor - even if you want to say it shouldn't be the determining factor.
i think there's only one 'clean" player in the draft and that's Sewell and he didn't play last year (along with Chase arguably the other "almost clean" draftee) so maybe even he isn't completely clean.
The negatives that every player carries are fair discussion material in the evaluation process.