“Solid” Or Struggling?
August 9th, 2017
Unknown quantity
A guy the Bucs have said they’re counting on this season has been one giant question mark through training camp.
Ryan Smith just doesn’t seem comfortable at cornerback, and he’s got a lot of snaps coming up on Friday night.
Second-year man Smith, the 2016 fourth-round pick, was a safety last season, but that experiment was dumped quickly by the Bucs. Now Smith is an NFL corner, his college position, and Joe just isn’t seeing anything special out of him. He often looks tentative and, at times, the bottom tier of Bucs receivers have eaten him for lunch in practice.
Joe sees Smith getting coached up more than others.
Joe asked winning head coach Dirk Koetter about Smith’s summer today, and Koetter said Smith is having a “solid” camp.
“He’s a great example of a guy who, you know, we know what Hargreaves and Grimes are gonna do. Ryan Smith is going to get a lot of snaps [Friday] and they’re going to be fun to watch,” Koetter said.
Very big night for Smith upcoming, especially if Brent Grimes sits out after getting a nasty cut on his shin at today’s practice. Grimes told Joe yesterday that he has little use for preseason games. So Joe suspects the veteran might be very happy to take a night off.
August 9th, 2017 at 1:42 pm
Anyone that was relying on him to take over for grimes in a few years was putting high hopes on a feeble boat. Next year we need to build up the cb position. He could still do it, but we cant just rely on that hope, get more options.
August 9th, 2017 at 1:52 pm
A corner in college and he is immediately moved to safety as soon as he got to camp last year. Now back to corner and not doing well? Seems to be a man in search of a position. Let”s give him a chance, 4th round picks usually get a year or two to prove themselves but I wish we had the same foresight to move Barron to LB when he struggled in pass coverage.
August 9th, 2017 at 2:06 pm
But but he went to the same school as josh Norman so he has to be good. Why else would we use a 4th rnd pick on a div II guy. Duh!
While most were calling for Andrew billings. Guess we’ll see who the better player is on Friday. Smh.
Hey my brain has a hole in it.
August 9th, 2017 at 2:26 pm
will be one of the players most worth watching in the preseason. he’ll get more reps than all the starters, albeit vs 2nd and 3rd string WRs…the good news is he is a special teams ace no matter what and there are other more proven backups (Hey Jude, mcclains) – not starter quality, but certainly more proven
CB is a position where i could see the team pouncing on somebody else’s camp cuts before the season begins. glad the starters look good and the nickel competition seems to be healthy, but if VH3 or grimes misses time, their replacement will be targeted nonstop and becomes the immediate weakness of the D
August 9th, 2017 at 2:37 pm
You forgot your signature line DB – “But what do I know…”
August 9th, 2017 at 3:01 pm
DB only part you left out was J. Norman was a little known backup nobody for thw cats for five years. Worked his tail off thw summer before a contract year that ultimately got him paid by another organization. Oh yea he made a name for himself by getting into it with cam. My point some guts develop a little slower than others.
August 9th, 2017 at 3:04 pm
Sorta like my spelling.
August 9th, 2017 at 3:37 pm
But wtf do I know!!!!!!!!!! Lol
August 9th, 2017 at 3:41 pm
I always use the example of Ronde being a 3rd round pick and barely making the field at all in his rookie year – he played in all of one game, and to my memory he wasn’t injured at all, he just wasn’t good enough to play, at least not with a team that had Donnie Abraham (very very underrated) and Anthony Parker (wow I forgot that guy existed) starting for it. Anywho Barber looked like a complete bust after one year – then he went on to have a HOF career. Maybe Smith is that…
Doubtful, but it’s preseason so we can hope.
August 9th, 2017 at 3:52 pm
Remember the term “tweener” Noah Spence is like that in a good way. Smith, not so much.
August 9th, 2017 at 4:02 pm
@joe
@jerseybuc
How do I pull up my archived comments?
I want to prove how I was the FIRST to say that we should
MOVE BARRON TO LINEBACKER!!!
August 9th, 2017 at 4:34 pm
Teach
Archives are on the left side of the homepage. Search by keywords.
August 9th, 2017 at 4:34 pm
@teacherman777
Ask The Buc Realist… he’s the expert on that
August 9th, 2017 at 4:48 pm
We don’t need to see Grimes until Week 3 of the PS anyway. On Smith, I see him beaten by Martino, Reedy…perhaps on the bubble themselves but they do have some NFL playing time, so it may be a cross between Smith struggling and finally some depth to choose from for #5 WR. I don’t look at this as bad.
August 9th, 2017 at 5:06 pm
This dude was great on ST last year. I have to question his off-season routine a bit here. The team surely has to be counting on more then STs. He barely saw the field last year. It’s time to tighten up.
August 9th, 2017 at 7:44 pm
Hargreaves was tentative last year, this is like a rookie year at corner for RS.
August 9th, 2017 at 8:08 pm
Sounds to me like he just needs a little time at CB. College is different from the NFL. Playing safety is different as well. I think he needs a year at the position as a backup.
I’m not freaking out if he busts though.
August 9th, 2017 at 8:09 pm
Rrsrq nailed it.
August 9th, 2017 at 9:45 pm
I’ll second that Bonzai. CB is the most glaring position to see a young player adjusting to NFL talent. Hopefully K is second most.
August 9th, 2017 at 10:49 pm
Lil worried about quality corner depth and right tackle
August 10th, 2017 at 12:53 pm
My take:
The guy reportedly did awesome in OTAs and in practices throughout last year – but I’m guessing those were mostly just coverage drills 1 on 1 and not as much running the full defense. Now that we’re in pads and running more game-type situations he’s probably over-thinking sh1t instead of just covering his man which is what he was doing well at.
Just my guess / take. Hopefully he can learn to fit well in the defense as an outside CB; and worst case he’ll be a valuable special teams player for us.