On all the deep throws, the defender was stuck to him like glue. He didn't have a single step on the defender on any of the passes. Yes, they were slightly under thrown, but it didn't matter. He gained no separation. I thought this was supposed to be his specialty? I'm excited to have him and he ran some good routes and showed good hands....but it was kind of disappointing to see him smothered on deep routes.
Pretty sure they were waiting for 9 routes from him all day, they were sprinting backwards every time he was outside. If Chan had called a few comeback routes and back shoulder throws, it might have kept the secondary honest.
that's why Smith has to get more versatile and well rounded... he's still raw yet. promising player, but has a lot to grow. i've noticed expectations are way too high for him his rookie season (on this board).
What did you expect him to do? Devin is plenty fast. His job isn't to outrun corners, he has to set them up and the QB has to lead him and throw the ball in front of him and let him go get it, that's what he does best. AJ Green is not a burner, neither is Marvin Jones but they lit up the Ravens yesterday with bigplays all day. Not because of their speed but because of how they set corners up. Plus Dalton despite his weak arm doesn't underthrow his receivers on deep balls. Another myth, that guys with a big arm have great deep balls. Most guys with big arms are horrendous at stretching the field.
Ok, he didn't "set up" the defenders either. He was blanketed. Overthrowing him wouldn't have helped at all on those passes.
He did. This isn't high school or college football anymore, he's not gonna fly by people. If Fitz figures out how to lead his receivers Devin is going to make those plays all day every day.
When asked, he ran some pretty good intermediate stuff. He had that nice corner route where he draged the back toe like a 5 year vet. There was also a comeback and cross where he was wide open but Fitz missed him. There might be more I'm forgetting; I'd have to go back and rewatch the game. From what I saw during Senior Bowl week and yesterday, I'd say "raw"ness was not the issue but more the plays having him go deep on what seems to feel like 90+% of the time. But then again just because the play calls for him to go deep, that doesn't mean the QB has to throw it to him especially when covered. There was a play where Devin ran a stop and go and the CB made no attempt to play the stop part of the route. Devin stopped but the CB kept going.
how many yards and receptions did everybody expect outta the guy? I was thinking maybe 30-40 recs, with like 500 yards or so.
First of all, wow. Second of all here are 3 different big plays that could have been completed. This isn't college, you're not going to be streaking free on go routes. The quarterback needs to be able to take advantage of a step of separation. You can chalk it up to Fitz just having a bad day, being inaccurate or not having enough practice time with Devin, but there's room for these to be completed (other than one brutal decision into double coverage that should have been picked). In addition to underthrowing the balls, Fitz was also putting them inside instead of outside, which severely limited what Smith could do. I think he could have made a couple of these plays if they were underthrown outside. The last one especially, Fitz stepped up in the pocket, had no one in a 10 yard radius of him and had Devin streaking wide open and he Tebowed the throw. I marked where Devin wound up (unguarded) and where the ball went. Also, he's not necessarily a "burner" in that he just runs by people. He's a "deep threat". His most widely acknowledged attribute is his ability to track the ball while it's in the air and make adjustments to the throw. That was plenty on display as he almost made 3 spectacular catches on horribly thrown deep passes. Hopefully with a little more time those plays turn into completions and he can turn into something special. And hopefully with a little more time, Fitz gets a gauge for his speed and where to throw the ball.
There was some article a while back that said speed does not have any correlation with success at WR position. In the NFL it takes more than just speed to beat those corners. It sounds cool to say he's a burner but he was not open. As said, its his first NFL action thrown to by an avg QB who hasn't had time to develop with him. He will develop in time, but he's not a veteran WR or a plug in start contributing number 2 and wasn't meant to be.
Thank you for posting this, I was beginning to question whether I had actually seen what I thought I had.
He runs a 4.42, he's really not a burner. His game is adjusting to balls in the air, but it's hard to do that when the quarterback stops you in your tracks.
First 2 plays could've been completions if we had a QB w/a stronger arm. The 2nd play, very similar situation to the Packers game last season when Geno dropped a dime in between the safety and corner for the touchdown. Fitz under-threw that one completely. That prob isn't a TD to Devin Smith, but a big play nonetheless. Devin Smith still had a chance at the first deep ball, he fought for it. 3rd one, bad throw on the run by Fitz. Devin Smith has good abilities to track the ball though, he ALMOST had that one underthrown pass.
For anyone who wants to contend that the pictures I posted aren't "separation", here's a screenshot from Julio Jones' game winning 40 yard touchdown on a go route last week. Difference is the throw. You'll see the same from any completed go route in this league.
