Jacksonville Jaguars Midseason Rookie Recap: Chris Smith
By Daniel Lago
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Heading into their bye week after a brutal loss in London, the Jacksonville Jaguars are a little more than halfway through the 2014 NFL regular season. The bye week also means it’s time to step back and briefly evaluate how some of the players have performed so far. The second year into a massive rebuild, the most interesting players to look at of course are the young guys who should eventually be the foundation for this team.
Over the course of the week, we’ll be taking a look at all of the rookies playing roles for the Jaguars right now. We’ll start with the undrafted guys and work our way down all the way to the first round pick.
Let’s take a look at the guy who hasn’t really made his way onto the field very much this season – 5th round defensive end Chris Smith.
After going heavy on defensive players in his first draft, general manager David Caldwell focused on the offensive side of the ball in 2014, but one of the defensive guys he took a flyer on late in the draft was Chris Smith. After being extremely productive at Arkansas (18 sacks in his last 2 years), Smith seemed like a guy who could come in and potentially provide the Jaguars with a much needed pass rush. Standing 6’1″ with arms measuring over 34 inches, Smith has a lot of the tools needed for Gus Bradley LEO position. After a fairly good preseason, Smith was relegated to the practice squad before making it onto the active roster due to Andre Branch’s injury. Here’s how he’s performed so far in 2014:
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With barely over 30 snaps combined this season, it’s hard to really evaluate how Chris Smith has done. He had one sack against Cincinnati, but he really hasn’t done much with his time on the field. He should continue to get reps while Andre Branch is out, but you hope he will do well enough to warrant playing time even when Branch gets back.
Given how much of a disappointment Chris Clemons has been and how utterly ineffective he’s been as a pass rusher, I wonder if the Jaguars shouldn’t just shift some of his snaps over to Smith to see what he has. Regardless, Smith hasn’t done anything to impress, but that could change over the rest of the season.