Louisville football: Jaylen Smith shines at NFL Combine

After a poor showing at the Senior Bowl, former Louisville football star Jaylen Smith earned himself a lot of money behind a strong performance at the 2019 NFL Draft Combine.

Former Louisville football wide receiver Jaylen Smith was the lone Cardinal to get an invite to this year’s 2019 NFL Scouting Combine. Smith needed to test well to improve his draft chances after a poor showing at the Senior Bowl, and that’s exactly what he did.

Coming off his 2017 first team All-ACC season where he posted career highs in receptions (60 receptions), receiving yards (980 yards) and touchdowns (7 TD), the former Card was nearly a sure-fire draft prospect following his junior season.

Unfortunately for Smith, a late season wrist injury  and a Cards slide to end the season forced the former Card’s hand. He prepared to double down and opted to come back for his senior season.

The 2018 UofL season would prove to be less than ideal for Smith and his draft stock. A tumultuous year with inconsistent QB play resulted in a drop in production. A strong combine performance would be needed to help mitigate some of the question marks and worries surrounding the former Card’s skills and production.

Smith measured out at a respectable 6’2, 219 pounds. Known as a bigger WR who isn’t the fastest, but knows how to use his body to fight for position to make plays on the ball; there were questions marks regarding Smith and his speed translating to the next level.

Smith silenced many concerns surrounding whether he possessed the necessary speed at the next level running 4.47 unofficially in the 40 yard dash. While his 20 yard shuttle time of 4.48 secs and 3-cone drill time of 7.55 secs placed him amongst the lower tier of the receivers present at the combine, it’s rather a moot point as Smith did what he needed to do running sub 4.5 in the 40 yard dash.

He benched 225 pounds a respectable 14 reps, posted a 34.5 inch vertical jump and jumped just over10 feet in the broad jump. Overall, Smith earned a very respectable mid-to-late round grade that gives him a “better than average chance to make a 53 man NFL roster.” Players who fall in this range generally are important and versatile special teams contributors and players who add valuable depth to a club’s roster their rookie season.

Ultimately no one knows where Smith will get drafted. The UofL fan in me says he’ll go as high as the 3rd round. That some club will look at last year’s drop in production as an anomaly where the lack of a QB and a UofL team in turmoil was to blame. My jaded heart tells me he could slide to as late as the 6th round. That they’ll hold the lack of effort (at times) and production from last season against him. Regardless of where he lands, the future isn’t written for Smith.

Whoever chooses to pull the trigger on him come April 25th – 27th during the 2019 NFL Draft, they’ll have a fan in me as I’ll be pulling for the former Card.