Play like a Raven: Tyler Smith
The Ravens have a perplexing conundrum in this draft class.
They must get better up front and protect Lamar Jackson. The uncertainty surrounding Ronnie Stanley brings an added layer of complexity.
This draft class has four top tier Offensive Tackles. There is a good chance that all four will be gone by the Ravens pick at 14.
Luckily this draft has a wealth of developmental Offensive Tackle options, and the Ravens will hope that one of their scouts has placed a red star on one of these enticing prospects.
My favorite, and one of my red stars this draft season, is Tyler Smith, Offensive Tackle, Tulsa.
Make no mistake, he is a project. There is a lot of work to be done before you can be comfortable with him protecting the edge of Lamar Jackson’s pocket, but there is also a lot to work with.
His game his paradoxical and there are two strange dichotomies in his play that are worth exploring before I get to what I believe he can be in the Ravens scheme.
He has quick but inefficient feet
His hands land outside the shoulder pads of the edge-rusher but the defender rarely comes through him because of his hand placement
Firstly, an Offensive Lineman’s greatest strength is his connection with the floor. All of his strength, weight and ultimately power is negated or reduced depending on how much of his body isn’t connected to the floor.
A certain Offensive Line guru puts it best:
“Offensive Line is a position that is Ground Reaction Force (GRF) based. GRF is the force exerted through the ground on to a body that is in contact with it.
For example, a 320lbs Offensive lineman, who is in his stance without motion has a force exerted upon him from the ground equal to his body weight”
It’s why efficient feet are preferable to quick feet, if those quick feet are able to be so because the Offensive Lineman picks his feet up and down quickly to move.
Tyler Smith’s feet are quick, very quick. He has foot speed that he demonstrated in space as he moved to locate defenders at the second level when blocking out in space. But in his kick-slide, in pass protection, they’re choppy. Up-and-down pistons, that maximize the amount of time a savvy edge-rusher has to put himself at an advantage.
This is the biggest area for improvement in Smith’s game, and it’s also why my red star on him, is somewhat of a gamble. If this part of his game doesn’t improve, it could be a death knell for his prospects at the next level. He will regularly come up against savvy pass-rushers who will take advantage of this. It happened in college against those guys who had a better rush plan and knew how to time their engagement with Smith to maximize their chances of coming through him.
Secondly, most casual evaluators are looking for a good strike inside with two hands in pass protection. In reality, there are many different ways to use your hands on the Offensive Line. Hand placement is not always about hands inside and a two-handed strike should not be the most oft-used tool in an Offensive Linemen’s pass protection bag. Independent hands i.e. working with one hand first, are far more important.
Tyler Smith, and many other college players now, show that two hands outside can also be a way to win. It was a technique made famous in the NFL by the Green Bay Packers, who used it to great effect, but crucially with precision and timing and in their hands.
Smith employs this technique because of his play strength, which is impressive. It allows him to control the Defensive Linemen’s arms effectively, with little room for manoeuvre, while using his strength and leverage to negate any potential speed to power move or bull rush.
You can see Smith get beaten by speed to power at Tulsa, but I would argue that it was due to his inefficient feet, not his hand placement. Smith drops his anchor and stops even bigger and stronger Defensive Linemen stone-dead in their tracks, despite having his hands outside them.
But there are some other crucial elements to the hands-outside technique: they have to be timed well and they have to still be placed well. Smith can be slightly off with both of these at times, ending up with his hands behind the shoulder and called for holding on multiple occasions, as well as landing his hands too late to exert the control that the technique can give you.
So, there are some technical refinements needed to his game.
But, I don’t think there is as much of a gamble to taking Smith as some of these concerns about his game might have you believe. He may not make it at Offensive Tackle because of these deficiencies. But they will be less pronounced inside at Guard. I’m not one for suggesting position changes from OT to OG for deficient Offensive Linemen but in this case, I think it’s a responsible suggestion.
There is something to be said for him needing to improve these things somewhat even if he was to move inside to Guard but, some of the deficiency in his feet could be negated inside, when you don’t need to ask him to travel far and get him to a place where he can jump set more. And he’s started to improve his hand placement, slipping his hand down and around the breastplate when he misses over the defender’s shoulder. That’s growth - the Ravens love that.
Another thing they, and many other teams will love, whether he plays outside or inside, is Smith’s play strength and his anchor. He has remarkable core power and can stalemate even more dangerous power rushers. He plays with great leverage and protects the integrity of the pocket. When he is challenged and rocked slightly, he can hop backwards and reset his feet before anchoring again.
I love his recovery ability, it’s a trait you find in the best Offensive Linemen in the NFL. He has excellent body control and balance for his size, and he can right himself from compromising positions, winning even when he seemingly has no possible route to do so. This recovery ability can, on occasion, also be his get-out-of-jail-free-card when the deficiencies already outlined show up.
He’s also got good hip mobility and processing so he can adjust very well to stunts and games or inside counters.
There is a lot to like in his pass protection despite some of the challenges I’ve outlined, but we haven’t even gotten to the best bit yet. He. Is. A. Mauler.
He can use his foot speed to position well on space blocks and will play well in a Zone scheme because of it. This simply makes him scheme diverse though, where he’s a great fit for the Ravens, is as a Gap blocker.
He excels as a fit and finisher as a Gap blocker. He has great strike zone recognition and excellent power in his hands, he can roll his hips on contact and displays explosive strength at the point of attack. On Down blocks he can obliterate a whole side of the line of scrimmage, and as a Drive blocker he displays his impressive core strength. He’s good on double teams and his athleticism will help him as a puller. You can see him stop his feet on contact but he’ll always make the block functional if he does.
He can overwhelm defenders in the run game and he will finish with nasty.
He has toughness, athleticism, intelligence, grit, has shown growth in his game and is a perfect scheme fit for the Ravens. He plays like a Raven.
If you can fix some of the deficiencies in his pass protection wholly, then he can be a Pro Bowl Right Tackle. If you can fix them in part, he can be a Pro Bowl Guard.
If you don’t see Daniel Faalele on the board in the middle of the second round (I do think the Ravens will be smitten with him), then Tyler Smith is a great alternative and a talented Offensive Lineman to add to the Ravens OL room.