Bonus Blog - Justin Smith

Justin Smith.

I have mixed emotions about this guy. I stand by my “worst franchise player ever” label of him, but he isn’t totally useless.
We all know he’s athletically, pretty solid. When he hits people, he usually brings them down. He runs down some fast guys on his trademark clean-up tackles. But he has no real impact to the games he plays in. We can pay a lot of guys less than $6 million to make plays eight yards down the field.
He hasn’t recorded double-digit sacks in a season and has two this year. He racks up a lot of tackles, but they’re always coming to the aid of a struggling defensive back clinging onto the ball-carrier for dear life. He’s constantly seen dropping back into coverage but hasn’t had a pick since he recorded two his rookie season, six years ago. He has an Anheuser Busch tattoo on his arm and looks like Larry the Cable Guy. He might drive a Jon Deer to the game and keep a stuffed ten-point buck head above his locker, I dunno.
I do know we pay him among the highest paid defensive ends, as the franchise tag dictates. I also know he isn’t playing anywhere near the level of Jared Allen, Osi Umenyora or even Xenia native and UC grad, Trent Cole - check that guy out sometime. Justin Smith was chosen fourth overall in the 2001 draft.
Smith does bring words like high-motor and effort-guy to the conversation. He has the kind of hustle Bob Knight strangles his players to get (Just kiddin’ Bob, ya know I love ya). He would run into brick walls if he had to. In fact, that’s all he does anyway. When does Justin Smith do a swim move or a spin to get to the quarterback? He sees red when the ball is snapped and bull rushes right at the opposing lineman every single time. As mentioned, he’s being dropped back into coverage a lot more lately. The thinking is that maybe Smith can don the Harry Potter invisibility cape and trick the QB into throwing it right to him. After all, a guy 280 lbs. dressed in bright orange, can be tough to locate.
I think Smith’s replacement can be a good start to retooling this defense. Who we settle on will tell us a lot about the future plans for this defense. Chances are, we wont convert a college defensive tackle into an end in hopes to transform the unit into a 3-4 defense. I would like to see Frostee Rucker do what most third-round picks do and that’s compete for a starting job at some point in their careers, but don’t hold your breath on that one. Instead I’d like a speed end with a variety of moves that can get to the quarterback. Like the Colts’ Robert Mathis. We have one of those guys already with Robert Geathers, the 117th pick in the 2004 draft. I’m not saying these guys grow on trees, but the tweeners who are too small to play end but can rack up sack numbers when they play, are available in every draft.

MK - Taxidermy is murder!