Chris Smith II 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Georgia SAF

Chris Smith, Georgia: 5’11”, 190 pounds; RS SR.

A four-star recruit in 2018, Chris Smith had to wait his turn with the Bulldogs due to all the great safeties they had there during the Kirby Smart era, with his first five starts coming in 2020.

The following season – during the Bulldogs championship run – he started 11 of 12 games, recording 34 combined tackles, four PBUs and three interceptions (with one returned to the house). Last season, he picked off three more passes and broke up five, along with career-highs in tackles (61) and TFLs (five), along with a fumble forced and recovered each, on his way to first-team All-SEC and All-American honors, along with another Natty.

Chris Smith scout report: Strengths

Emeka Egbuka #2 of the Ohio State Buckeyes is tackled by Chris Smith #29 of the Georgia Bulldogs

+ Started 31 games for the dominant defense in college football, whilst filling a multitude of roles in a very detailed coverage scheme.

+ High-level range and instincts as a center-fielding free safety, where he rarely moves himself off the middle of the field without a legitimate threat, to be able to play top-down and have favorable angles.

+ When they’re in zone shells, Chris Smith plays extremely well to his leverage and shows a tremendous understanding for spacing.

+ In split-safety looks, he understands when slot receivers are slightly stemming outside and anticipates breaks across his face are coming, to where he can jump dig/shallow post routes.

+ Consistently identifies the biggest threat playing deep and floats that way to bracket that target.

+ Displays active eyes and a good feel for positioning himself between targets when coming down as a rat/robber.

+ Overall, arrives at the target on time and with the force to jar balls loose.

+ Doesn’t seem uncomfortable matching up with the number two or three receiver in trips when they blitz the defender over that guy, as he’s playing 15 yards deep and positioning himself according to the stem.

+ Shows good patience as a slot defender when he’s lined up there pre-snap. He leverages his man towards the deep coverage and slowly gives ground, whilst being ready to rapidly redirect to breaks and has the juice to attach to the hip-pocket of guys on in-breakers.

+ In general, the way he anticipates routes and reads the hips of receivers when put in man situations is definitely better than you’d expect from somebody playing deep safety as much as he did.

+ Displays the snappy hips to be slightly tilted towards his guy pushing off the line, yet be right there to undercut routes intended to go across his face.

+ Has the play strength to not get knocked off by bigger bodies who try to run into him and create separation that way.

+ Really attacks the catch-point and is able to dislodge receivers from the ball when he has a runway on multiple occasions.

+ Over the past two seasons, he has allowed 38 of 60 targets his way to be completed, for just 341 yards and two touchdowns, compared to his six interceptions.

+ Has that quality I’ve raved about with Georgia safety multiple teams before, where he comes downhill from depth and just accelerates into contact on plays out towards the perimeter.

+ Yet he understands how aggressive he can be depending on which press-snap look they’re in and where he’s aligned.

+ From two-high alignments, he consistently stays in position to not get beat out to the sideline and tracking the near-hip of the ball-carrier.

+ Regularly is able to shoot his hips through and stop receivers on sweeps right there on the spot.

+ Very effective as a tackler in space, putting his face-mask into the frame and driving his legs through contact.

+ Especially on those deeper in-breaking routes when he has to come up, you rarely see guys be able to cross his face and rip off big gains.

+ Had three huge plays in the 2022 season-opener at Oregon. He flew up in run support from depth to stop the back cold, then had an awesome interception off Bo Nix and finally dislodged the ball on a deep shot, where the receiver seemed wide open originally, with him getting over there as the single-high safety.

Chris Smith scout report: Weaknesses

Chris Smith #29 of the Georgia Bulldogs returns a blocked field goal for a 95 yard touchdown against the LSU Tigers

– Showing up at combine weighing 192 pounds and then running a 4.62 in the 40 is rough for his draft stock.

– The lack of size does show up when he’s coming downhill and someone makes him go airborne as they get hands on him from the side.

– With how much of his man-coverage snaps were spent in outside leverage, funneling receivers to the deep middle safety, Smith didn’t have to fear getting beat deep by himself. Yet, from limited instances, you can question if he has that extra gear to keep up with true speedsters one-on-one.

– Tends to drift too deep in two-high shells because he may not fully trust his speed and ends up covering grass at times.

– You love the aggressive mindset, but Chris Smith does come in too hot as a tackler at times and missed 11 attempts this past season (15.1% miss rate).

Chris Smith scout report: Grade

Chris Smith #29 of the Georgia Bulldogs celebrates after the victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes

After stepping into the starting lineup for Georgia’s defense in 2021 due to an injury to one of their transfers at the position, Chris Smith turned himself into a key piece to winning back-to-back championships.

He comes very much in the mold of the last few guys we’ve seen enter the draft from that program, with some concerns about frame plus speed. I definitely believe he plays faster than he times, and this kind of reminds you of what happened a couple of years ago with former teammate Richard LeCounte II (whose GPS data would show how much better he moved in actual game situations, in relation to other players).

I do question if the NFL believes his range isn’t quite there to be trusted as a center-fielder and that the lack of size could create some matchup issues, but this is one of the most complete safeties and best football players in this class. If he can become a little more reliable as a tackler, Chris Smith can be a starter early on and stick around for several years. That’s worthy of a mid-day two pick in my book.

Grade: Early third round

You might like other 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports: Tyree Wilson (EDGE), Texas Tech; Will Anderson Jr. (EDGE), Alabama; Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio; Zay Flowers (WR), Boston; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Quentin Johnston (WR), TCU; Zach Charbonnet (RB), UCLA; Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas.

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