It'll be interesting to see how Green Bay drafts next week after going in a much blacker direction in the past 12 months after winning the Super Bowl with the Whitest team in the league.
Smith Has Tools if Packers Go Safety First
Green Bay - From afar, Harrison Smith kept a close eye on each frightening spike of the football in the end zone. Quickly, the Notre Dame safety realized Rob Gronkowski wasn't just changing the tight end position. He was changing the game.
"Both of those guys - (Jimmy) Graham and Gronkowski - are just freaks," Smith said Saturday. "They're very big and very talented. They have big hands and great coordination. They get great separation and that's something the league is trying to adapt to right now."
So this April, Smith's value is high. The crop of safeties in the NFL draft is not strong. After Alabama's Mark Barron and Smith, there's a steep drop-off.
It'd be no surprise if a team like Green Bay drafted Smith toward the end of the first round. With Nick Collins' career hanging in the balance after neck surgery - and the wincing memories of a league-worst defense still fresh - safety is an immediate need for the Packers.
Smith has not visited Green Bay but says he's talked to just about every NFL team.
At a sturdy 6 feet 2 inches and 213 pounds, Smith is intelligent, long and fast. He's one player who may be capable of covering today's athletic tight end. Throughout his meetings with teams, that has been the hot topic.
"There's a big tight end in every division that dominated last year," Smith said. "Nobody found a great way to stop it without leaving other things open. So that's something people are definitely focused on.
"How do you stop these big, athletic guys? I think the best way to stop them is with bigger, athletic safeties that match up better with them. It's hard to put a corner on them. It's hard to put a linebacker on them. A bigger safety who can run with them and make plays on the ball is something teams put a lot of value on."
At Notre Dame, dating to his redshirt freshman year, Smith has worked this craft. On the scout team in 2007, he faced future Seattle Seahawks tight end John Carlson daily. When Carlson left, he worked against future Minnesota Vikings second-round pick Kyle Rudolph for three years. And in 2011, as a senior, Smith faced another tight end destined for the pros in Tyler Eifert.
The experience helped. Smith emerged as one reliable presence in the middle of an often-inconsistent Notre Dame defense. As a junior, free to roam, Smith picked off seven passes and had 91 tackles. In 2011, he didn't have any interceptions. Smith admitted he must turn more breakups into interceptions. But last year, he was given more man-to-man responsibilities that should help him in the NFL.
"Really the whole time I've been there, there have been NFL tight ends I'm going against," Smith said. "It's a standard I didn't realize I was going against but it was always there. . . . I wasn't thinking how this was getting me ready for the NFL. Nobody was really watching me because I was on the scout team, but I was taking the reps serious because I knew those were the reps I was getting for the whole season.
"Looking back, I'm glad I got that experience."
Defensive coaches are concerned about the evolving tight end, Smith said. New England's Gronkowski had 90 catches for 1,327 yards and 17 touchdowns. New Orleans' Graham finished with 99 grabs for 1,310 yards and 11 touchdowns. Elsewhere, the Packers' Jermichael Finley and San Francisco's Vernon Davis posed similar problems with their athleticism.
To Smith, the key to combating this are safeties with size and smarts. Shutting this player down must become a science.
"There's always the physical aspect that if this guy's faster than me, I have to play him this way. And if I'm faster than him but he's bigger than me, I have to play him this way," Smith said. "Then there is, 'What coverage am I in? Do I have help deep, behind me, in the middle of the field, on the outside of the field, low?' It's not always pure man to man."
At Notre Dame, Smith was required to make all the calls and blanket the field. Fighting Irish cornerback Robert Blanton, a low-round draft prospect, started alongside Smith all last season.
"He's a good communicator and always makes sure he does the right thing," Blanton said. "He gets guys lined up where they need to be. He has great speed and covered tons of ground. He does a great job. He has a great work ethic and is a good competitor."
Maybe the Packers have a chance to take him. It wouldn't hurt to pair another young safety with with Morgan Burnett.
Smith still remembers making a 3-D paper football stadium in art class as an 8-year old, days before the Packers' Super Bowl loss to the Denver Broncos in January 1998. He wrote a score on the sculpture, too. The Knoxville, Tenn., native predicted a Packers win.
Of course, Denver shocked Green Bay in that game. But one play stuck with Smith - Denver safety Steve Atwater's crunching hit on Green Bay receiver Robert Brooks and one of his own teammates on the Packers' final drive.
Now, he's hoping to play that role himself and cover some of these "freak" tight ends while he's at it.
"In meetings, I tell them that I'm that guy who can give them a better matchup," Smith said. "At the end of the day, they're going to watch the film and decide if I am or not."
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