The Panthers began the week in need of a wide receiver, and with Ron Rivera and Marty Hurney both having talked during the Combine about improving the position group and bringing in a veteran; they then went and backed up those statements of intent by trading for two-time Super Bowl winner Torrey Smith, giving up Daryl Worley in the process. On a superficial level, Smith provides both the speed that Hurney had stressed and the veteran leadership that Rivera had craved, and in terms of judging the trade, it will be important to value what the Panthers gave up as well as what they gained, but at this point, Torrey Smith is the big unknown. So what does Torrey Smith show on tape?
The Upside
The big selling point with Smith has always been his ability to stretch the field; while he might not be in the Ted Ginn or Mike Wallace category of speed, he does show the ability to get deep on a defense if they fail to account for him over the top with safety help. The following play is a perfect example of what Torrey Smith can do:
While the Eagles did use Smith as a largely deep option last season, they often did so on fades and scramble drills, and while Doug Pederson is one of the best offensive minds in football at the moment, his usage of Torrey Smith was questionable at times; 2017 saw Smith post career lows in yards per reception, first downs and touchdowns. While Smith’s game shouldn’t be entirely dedicated to getting deep, a large determinant in how effective he is for the Panthers will come down to usage, with as much importance being placed on hiding his weaknesses as exaggerating his strengths.
The Details
Torrey Smith has developed a reputation for drops in his NFL career, and it is certainly true that his hands are not among the NFL’s best. While this, combined with his deep speed, has led to Smith being compared to Ted Ginn, Jr., this comparison fails to take into account the nature of Smith’s drops. Unlike Ginn, Smith does show generally decent catching technique with most of his catches being with his hands and on plays like the following, Smith shows the ability to make catches away from his frame:
Where Smith really struggles is making catches in traffic; he tends to shy away from contact over the middle and doesn’t show particularly strong hands when it comes to making tough catches. Good receivers make catches on both of the following plays:
This is obviously not good, but this does distinguish him from Ted Ginn in an important way. Ginn struggled for basic coordination when catching the ball, with his drops often being simple failings to put his hands in the right place; Ginn was unquestionably a better receiver than Smith, but from a purely catching perspective Smith may have a better case. What is so unusual about how Smith was used in 2017 then, was the number of times Smith was asked to make tough back-shoulder catches as part of his routes. One of Smith’s most-run routes in Philly was the deep fade, which asks receivers to make a high number of contested catches, Smith’s weak point. While Smith was sometimes able to come down with the catch, using him in this way seems very odd:
This is a route that the Panthers ran with both Benjamin and Funchess in 2017 with limited success, and it should be hoped that they don’t look to use Smith in this way. He is at his best when using his speed to separate either vertically or underneath, not when he is tasked with making catches over defenders.
A key skill for Smith in Carolina will therefore be his ability to separate underneath, something that almost exclusively comes down to route running. Smith is not an elite route runner, but does at least show flashes of an ability to create separation for himself underneath; for faster receivers such as Smith, an easy way to create separation underneath is to use their speed to force their defenders up the field and then breaking back to the ball for maximum separation. Smith is not elite at this skill, but he does show some instances of doing this on tape:
He also showed the ability to turn his defender around using his speed, such as on the following play:
Here, he uses the threat of going deep to force the defender into his backpedal and then when the defender looks to turn vertically, Smith breaks back inside for maximum separation. Smith also shows some ability to separate without having to rely on his speed; on the following play, Smith hesitates at the head of the route and then breaks inside to create a short window of separation which allows for the catch:
The following play is similar, but here the separation is enhanced as Smith’s break is timed with the handoff between defenders in zone coverage and so the separation created is far more significant:
There are some concerns about miscommunications, as on a couple of plays there appears to be a mix-up between Smith and the quarterback on what route he was meant to run. It isn’t clear from this whose fault this is, but it’s certainly something worth noting:
It is hard to tie down exactly what the Panthers are getting in Smith beyond his ability to stretch the field and his struggles making catches in traffic; perhaps the Panthers were enamored with something they don’t currently have on the roster, a deep threat who can stay on the field. Smith has only missed 12 games in his seven-year NFL career thus far.
He wasn’t asked to do much as a route runner in Philadelphia, and is coming off of his worst year in the NFL, but if the Panthers can diversify how they use Smith and he can perform at anything like the level he did during his last two seasons in Baltimore then the Panther may have found an good value second receiver, but if what they get is 2017 Torrey Smith, then his veteran leadership, teaching ability and $5 million cap hit might not make up for his lack of production on the field.
