He may have won the Heisman Trophy but Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel says that Troy Smith isn’t getting any respect at all from the NFL scouts:
For all that Troy Smith accomplished the past two-plus years at Ohio State, I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed with him than I am right now. After I read the various reports out of last weekend’s NFL combine in Indianapolis, it’s become apparent that Smith managed to win a Heisman Trophy, rack up ridiculous passing stats and lead his team to 20 straight victories in spite of the fact he’s a crappy quarterback.
Yep. You read that right. The NFL cognoscenti have spoken. After eyeballing Smith in shorts and watching him throw 18 practice passes against no defense, the connoisseurs with the clipboards and the stop watches have decreed that the former Ohio State quarterback, to put it simply, stinks. Once considered a late-first or early second-round pick, Smith will now be fortunate to land in the third or fourth round based on the buzz in Indy.
Mandel thinks that the NFL verdict, which seems largely to be based on the fact that Smith is short and performed badly in the National Championship Game, to be so much nonsense:
With such considerable evidence against Smith’s worth as a quarterback, I figure there’s only one possible explanation for how he won all those games in college: He’s an illusionist. Yep. A full-on David Copperfield/David Blaine-caliber performer. All those times you thought you were watching Smith pick apart Texas or throw the game-winning touchdown against Michigan? He was actually throwing incompletions at his receivers’ feet. He fooled you.
I’m pretty sure that’s not the case.
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I agree with you. He is awesome; certainly better than crappy David Blaine, and DEFINITELY better than Brady Quinn of the over-rated Notre Dame.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
[...] yet, as I noted back in March, Smith was getting no respect at all from NFL scouts from the beginning of the draft [...]