JPlay

I would love to trade down and grab these two in the first two rounds. We could pick up a CB or FS in round 3.

Russ Smith

I found this interesting comment about Smith while doing some looking on the net.


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The No. 1 question on the minds of Utah fans isn't the outcome of Saturday's Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game against Pittsburgh. It is: "Will he or won't he?"

It centers on whether junior quarterback Alex Smith, the fourth-place finisher in Heisman Trophy balloting, will leave early for the NFL. Smith will make his decision soon after Saturday's game.

Perhaps a better question: Is Smith ready to go? Utah coach Urban Meyer, who is leaving to coach Florida after the game, has mixed feelings.

"That's a tough one. I don't know," Meyer said Wednesday. "I think no - my initial reaction is no. Then you start looking at the other quarterbacks who are out there. Alex is 20 years old, he's played 1 1/2 years of college football and he's just 205 pounds.

"But I can see a team investing in him and just letting him learn the system for two years before he actually has to play."
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Smiths' uncle is the coach at Michigan State, he said he polled 12 NFL teams and 11 of them said Smith would be a first rounder, that's what finalized the decision.

Really an intriguing guy I wish I'd seen more Utah games the last 2 years. The opinions on him vary so wildly it's obvious a lot of the scouts and draft sites haven't really seen him play much either. If nothing else he's another guy that can cause a good player to fall to us but I gotta admit I'm getting more interested in him possibly being there at 8 for us. WHen you look at the last draft who thought in January that Roethlisberger would be there at 8 let alone at 11?

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“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

Dback Jon

Didn't realize that Alex was John L's nephew

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R.I.P Tim Minnick

The KING of Cards

joeshmo

The more and more I here about Smith the more and more I like him. If he can show up at his personal workout at 225 instead of the small 205 he is now and still run great agility tests and 40 time, and show he can take a snap under center well(ran mostly shotgun in college) he will sky rocket up the boards.

Everything I have read they all say he is the smartest QB in the draft by far and with his athletic ability he is starting to become my favorite player in the draft.

I am currently trying to get some tape on him so I can get a first hand look.

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I just spent my live savings on Kangol Hat stock!

Russ Smith

He's growing on me too. The comment by Meyer surprised me though, given he already had taken the Notre Dame job he wasn't saying that to keep Smith at Utah.

But if 11 of 12 guys in the NFL told his uncle he'd be a first rounder that tells you something, before the season he wasn't even on the radar screen even coming off a great year.

I did find one disturbing article on him, some sportswriter compared him to Jake.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

joeshmo

He had to be talking about athletic ability or maybe he likes to flip the bird, or leave his women at the alter the day before his wedding, or something like that.

He couldnt have been comparing smarts.

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I just spent my live savings on Kangol Hat stock!

Rats

From the games I saw him this year he compares favorably to Jake. He is very athletic but lacks great field vision. I don't really think we want that kind of project here again after Jake and Josh. He is to similar to them in atheltics and smarts. A cerebral Qb taken in round 4 or later if we have to take a Qb at all. We are not that far away from being a playoff team so taking a project QB would just be the wrong move this season. John may pan out long term. Get a vet. Don't waste bandwidth talking about him if there really is no chance we get him. Rogers is the same. We need a Rb and a Dt,Cb. That is where the focus of the draft should be and look for a FA QB to compete.

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Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. In the 4th qt fast guys are slower but Big guys are still BIG.

Russ Smith

I was kidding but the guy said he was voting for Smith for the Heisman and his rationale was he took a nobody program to national prominence, much like Jake did at ASU. Said I voted for Jake for the Heisman then, so I'll vote for Smith now. Smith is VERY smart, he was a junior academically when he entered college because of college courses he took in HS.

I think his comparison to Jake was based on the offense they run too, Smith is out of the pocket a lot. I just want to see the guy in a pro set offense in an all star game throwing the ball more than 10 yards downfield to WR's who aren't WIDE open so I can judge his arm a bit easier. All I saw in college was the bowl game and highlights and he had guys literally 10 yards behind the defense in those highlights so it's really hard to get a feel for how that translates to the NFL where 1 step is considered open.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

Rocco

It's only been over the past 4-5 years that I've really come to understand how difficult it is to project a college player to the NFL. The difference between the college game and the pro game is so much larger than most fans realize. There are far fewer physical mismatches. No wonder there's so many draft busts.

Russ Smith

Yep. That's why I'm so skeptical of all this Jason Campbell love on the board.

He's got the size and athletic skill for sure but this is a guy who's played his whole career with 2 great RB's on the roster, everyone that played Auburn stacked the box, and yet this is the first year he's been anything special. He was over 60% every year but when you see them play it's not hard to see why teams are so afraid of their run game he makes any sort of play action and the WR's are open. He's basically been facing teams playing run defense for 4 years throwing to wide open WR's. He MAY in fact be really good, but it's damn near impossible to tell in that situation because he really isn't asked to do anything but hand the ball off, and every now and then throw the ball to a wide open player to keep the defense honest. I think he's either going to be a huge surprise, or a colossal failure but who can tell?

I really want to see Smith play more though, just haven't seen enough to try and say yes or no. I've seen Rodgers and Leinart so much my opinions on them are pretty set in stone, barring some injury or off field incident that hasn't surfaced yet, not much will change my opinion on them. Smith, I'm wide open.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

black

This is exactly what the combines are for. Some slip through the cracks, but for qb's and linemen are the building block for an NFL's team draft.