The New Defense on Film Part 6: Jimmy Smith

As a part of our series on the 2013/14 Ravens defense, we’re going to start looking at young veterans who are projected to have a big impact this fall.  This piece will dig deeper into the Ravens’ 2011 first round pick, Jimmy Smith. Don’t miss our previous parts of this series: 1)  2)  3)4)and 5) Courtney Upshaw.

Join the discussion about Jimmy Smith on the message board here.

Additionally, we took a closer look at the Ravens’ free agent additions. Check out Chris Canty, Elvis Dumervil, Michael Huff, and Daryl Smith.

In 2011, the Ravens used the 27th overall pick of the draft on Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith.  2010 had been a dismal season for secondary play as Fabian Washington, Dominique Foxworth, and Chris Carr failed to solidify the back end of the defense. The hope was that Jimmy Smith would be a starter from day one and would greatly improve the patchwork secondary.

But of course, no discussion about Jimmy Smith can really begin without talking injuries. Smith infamously sprained his ankle of the opening kickoff of his first-ever game, and he has rarely been 100% since. In particular, 2012 was a tough season for Smith, who needed sports hernia surgery and saw little action after week 9 (his well-documented pass coverage of Michael Crabtree in the waning moments of the Super Bowl aside).

Thankfully, as we’ve all read recently,  Smith is healthy again and is ready to step up and take Cary Williams’ spot. With that in mind, I went to the film to see what we can expect from Jimmy this year.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

Smith clearly possesses many of the traits of successful NFL cornerbacks. In particular, his size is ideal for a prototypical NFL corner. At 6’2″ and about 200lbs, Smith is big enough to match up with most receivers. The Ravens were undoubtedly trying to get bigger in the secondary when they drafted Smith – his predecessors, Foxworth and Carr, were each about 5’10” and 180lbs.

Smith is also very long – in fact, it’s almost shocking to see on film. Smith’s length is a huge advantage both in press coverage and when defending the ball in the air. Finally, Smith looked extremely quick on film. His elite quickness and flexible hips allow him to turn and run with the fastest receivers and also close very quickly when in a soft zone.

With that said, it appears to me that Smith’s greatest strength is man coverage. And, from the very brief reading I did about his time at Colorado, that seems to hold true for his college career as well. Below is a play from the week 6 game against Dallas. The Ravens appear to be in 2-Man with Smith matched up against Miles Austin. Smith plays underneath coverage because he knows he has safety help over the top from Reed. In the end, though, no help is needed as Smith stays tight to Austin’s inside hip for a full 30 yards and beautifully deflects the pass.

 The Bad

As good as Smith often looked in coverage, he sometimes looked equally bad. He’s definitely less comfortable in zone coverage than man, and this showed up on film more than once. To be fair, some of it can be attributed to scheme – short comeback routes are nearly impossible to stop when playing a deep zone in Quarters, for example.

But some mistakes were definitely all on Smith. For one, Smith has a bad habit of settling into his zone then attacking the receiver as he breaks his route – no matter how far downfield. Smith drew a number of defensive pass interference calls, including against Miles Austin on the play just before the one broken down above. Smith will need to break this habit or risk drawing many more PI calls this season.

Additionally, Jimmy seems very vulnerable to double moves when he’s playing zone. The Houston receivers ate him alive in week 7, as I saw at least three wildly successful double moves against him in that game. In fact, Schaub badly overthrew one pass to a wide open Kevin Walter after such a move. As bad as that Texans game was, the score could’ve been even more out of hand.

Finally, Jimmy sometimes looked outmatched against strong, physical receivers like Dez Bryant. Receivers who weren’t afraid to engage Smith and use their strength and leverage found themselves wide open more often than not. Let’s take a look at another play from the Cowboys game:

Here, Jimmy is in man coverage against Dez Bryant. In the second slide, Dez jab steps to the outside to take advantage of Smith’s inside technique (notice how Smith’s hips are turned away from the middle of the field). As they engage, Dez uses his superior strength to practically throw Smith off of him. Smith, off balance and with his back to the field, has no chance. Finally, in slide four, you see how much separation Bryant has gotten, and he has the whole middle of the field open in front of him.

The Ugly

By far the ugliest part of Smith’s game can be summed up in one word: tackling. Smith seems to hate contact, and from what I saw on tape, he actively avoids hitting running backs. In games against Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, New England, and San Francisco, I saw a total of just two really good run stops: one on a backside corner blitz, where he took the back by surprise, and another when he was the only man anywhere near the running back. Had he avoided the tackle, the ball carrier would have simply ran untouched down the sideline and into the end zone.

The rest of the time, Jimmy’s run stopping looked something like this:

And the worst part is that Smith’s tackling problems weren’t confined to just running backs. He had some trouble tackling receivers in the open field, too. ProFootballFocus credits him with eight missed tackles in a very limited number of snaps. In that regard, Smith is pretty much the exact opposite of Lardarius Webb. Tackling is a glaring weakness in Smith’s game that he will need to improve going forward.

The only condolence I can offer is that Smith was probably playing hurt for most of last year. There is a chance that injuries kept him from playing more aggressively, and now that he is healthy he will be a more consistent tackler. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to tell from the film just how hurt Jimmy was playing. The missed tackles, on the other hand, are glaringly obvious.

In Conclusion

At times, Smith looks every bit the player the Ravens were hoping he would be when they drafted him in the first round. And he definitely looks like he has the potential to be a very solid cover corner. However, there are some huge holes in his game right now. It’s easy to see why Cary Williams started over him at the beginning of 2012, and as most Ravens fans know, that’s very far from a glowing review.

I think that Smith will start the year at corner opposite Webb for two reasons: he is finally healthy, and he has the potential to grow into a strong player. But I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the very underrated Graham take Jimmy’s spot as a starting corner in the base defense. Last season, Williams and Webb started in the base defense. In the nickel, Webb moved to the slot and Smith took over on the outside. If Jimmy doesn’t live up to expectations, I doubt it will take long for the team to assign him to a similar role this year.