Below The Beltway

Despite winning the Heisman Trophy and leading Ohio State to two winning seasons, including three victories over Michigan, Troy Smith had to wait until late in the 5th round of the NFL Draft to find out where he’ll be working come September:

OWINGS MILLS, Md., April 29 — Troy Smith and his Heisman Trophy waited over the weekend while 173 players were drafted ahead of him. When he finally received word that he had been picked Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens were on the other end of the line.

Baltimore drafted Smith, the quarterback of Ohio State’s national runner-up team last season, in the fifth round, headlining four picks on Day 2 of the draft. Although he was voted college football’s best player last season, concerns about his height (6 feet 1) caused teams to doubt his potential as an NFL quarterback. His draft stock fell, and eight quarterbacks were selected ahead of him.

“The critics are going to be here for the rest of my life,” Smith said. “There’s nothing I can do about them. In a lot of ways, they make people stronger or they take people under. My whole life I’ve been fighting that battle. It turned out positive right now and I’m going to continue to stay the course and fight the critics.”

Smith’s powerful arm and leadership helped the Buckeyes win the Big 10 Conference championship the last two seasons. He completed 63 percent of his passes in three seasons as Ohio State’s quarterback, and he won almost all of college football’s top individual awards last season after throwing for 2,542 yards, 30 touchdowns and six interceptions in 13 games.

And yet, as I noted back in March, Smith was getting no respect at all from NFL scouts from the beginning of the draft process.

Now, obviously, winning the Heisman Trophy, or even being the star quarterback coming out of college cannot be taken as a guarantee of success in the NFL. But the more I think about, the more I wonder if Troy Smith isn’t going to turn out to be another Doug Flutie.

Like Smith, Flutie was a star college quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy but couldn’t get the respect of anyone in the NFL. They said he was too short, for one thing. Flutie’s career started in the now defunct USFL, but he didn’t become an NFL star until after he’d spent eight years in Canada playing Canadian Football and became one of the CFL’s greatest players. Then, he returned to the NFL where he had respectable records with the Patriots, Bills, and Chargers.

Will Troy Smith follow a similar path ? It remains to be seen, but it’s clear from Flutie’s history that a lack of respect on Draft Day doesn’t necessarily mean that your career won’t go anywhere.