Eric Smith Finding His Place on the Field
Has anyone else been impressed with Eric Smith this year? From early during his time at training camp to now, it’s clear that he’s gone from doubtful, as he admits in Mehta’s article in the Star-Ledger, to sold out for this coaching staff and his expanding role in the Jets defense.
Smith played traditional safety for former coach Eric Mangini, occupying the deep part of the field. Ryan and Pettine, however, slid him into their “X” position, a hybrid safety/linebacker asked to move all over the place. Smith opened his mind and embraced the challenge.
“This is really the first time I’ve moved around like that,” said Smith, who missed six games last season due to two concussions. “We kind of rotate through. Everybody ends up everywhere.”
Smith had a pivotal pass breakup on third down during the Patriots’ final drive in the Jets’ Week 2 win over their AFC East rivals.
He earned a game ball for his standout performance last week in their victory over the Titans. The fourth-year pro picked up his fourth career interception to go along with six solo tackles and two passes defensed. He covered tight end Alge Crumpler, spied running back Chris Johnson and played underneath zone coverage on wide receivers.
Smith would be the likely candidate to cover Saints’ pass-catching threat Reggie Bush out of the backfield Sunday.
Mehta’s point about Bush makes me remember … hey, weren’t the Jets terrible at covering RBs and TEs in the passing game for the past few years? It’s been a real knock on the team and Mangini was never able to correct. Now granted, the team has better personnel in that regard this year than they did, but the difference is staggering. Look at how this year’s team stacks up to last year’s (bottom of pages).
Later on in the article Jim Leonhard notes that Ryan likes to reward players who make big special teams plays from a previous week to the next by designing some plays for that guy. If that’s the case, then Eric Smith seems to be getting more and more time on the field.
As we noted the other day, like Anthony Schlegel was the bellweather for Mangini’s drafting input (reminder, Mangini was also credited/blamed for strong-arming the team into taking Gholston for good or ill) on this organization, Eric Smith is the litmus test for how Ryan can take what Mangini started with. Ryan’s carved out a nice role for Smith, and Smith has responded. I’m sure he’d like to start, and he might yet get that chance here in New York or somewhere else, but for now, Ryan’s getting what he can out of the team.
3 Responses to Eric Smith Finding His Place on the Field
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Zartan says:
I read the daily news with a piece on Eric Smith and what might be demetia.Funny thing about that is, someone jokes how under Manghini he was always falling down and under rex hes still falling down but get the ball as he does. Maybe theres something to the story.
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StvDoe says:
Rex rewarding good special teams play by designing some regular defensive plays for the player is just another example of his brilliance as a motivator.
“…weren’t the Jets terrible at covering RBs and TEs in the passing game for the past few years? ”
Yup. I always knew getting Bart Scott and replacing Eric Barton and Abram Elam would help to fix that. I don’t doubt that the Browns are having the same issues, which must be one of the reasons for their slow start.
Case in point, at the start of last year, with Smith and Harris in the lineup, the short passing game wasn’t such a problem. When Smith got replaced by Elam, it went down a level and when Harris got hurt and was replaced by Bowens, they fell off a cliff. When Harris returned he clearly wasn’t 100% and by then Jenkins was hurting so the whole defense fell apart.
I love the scheme, but I put this almost entirely down to personnel.