Mazi Smith 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Michigan IDL

Mazi Smith, Michigan: 6’3”, 330 pounds; RS JR.

Just outside the top-100 overall recruits in 2019, Mazi Smith appeared in only two and five games respectively over his first two seasons with the Wolverines (three total tackles).

In 2021, he started all 14 games and was named an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection, with 37 tackles, 2.5 for loss and four passes batted down. Last season, he improved that to first-team all-conference with very similar numbers (although he had a fumble forced and recovered each), but more importantly, more of an impact on a play-by-play basis.

Mazi Smith scout report: Strengths

Mazi Smith in action for the Wolverines

+ Mazi Smith that fridge-like build, but is a wicked athlete who landed at the number one spot of Bruce Feldman’s Freak List for reportedly having clocked in below seven seconds in the three-cone drill, along with pumping 22 bench press of 325.

+ Was asked to line up in a light four-point stance on about half of his snaps in order to play under control as the rock in the middle of the Michigan defense.

+ Can legitimately two-gap against centers or guards, with shock in his hands if he just gets his hands inside the frame of linemen and the insane upper body strength to yank big men to the side.

+ You rarely see Smith get moved off the spot against single drive-blocks and he does a good job of transitioning his weight to effectively anchor against double-teams for the most part.

+ Has some impressive balance when caught on the wrong foot and too tall to somehow still get back in the picture.

+ When aligned head-up on an OL, you see his agility to back-door zone blockers and show himself in the backfield effortlessly, unlike most guys of his size.

+ Shows impressive short-area burst when he sees the ball-carrier and has to flatten down the line to run that guy down.

+ You regularly see that on the backside of inside zone, where stays square to the guard and then meets the back right as he tries to slice through the A-gap.

+ Became much more of a play-maker in run defense this past season (especially after the first couple of weeks) with 32 defensive stops on the year (tackles that constitute a positive outcome of the play for the defense).

+ Because of the stance he had to line up in, where he didn’t load up the weight onto his hands, he couldn’t explode forward as much. Yet when he was allowed to get into a more aggressive three-point stance and shoot up one gap, his get-off and charge up the field in passing situations definitely popped off the screen at moments.

+ When he connects well on his clubs, he can really whack linemen to the side.

+ His push-pull maneuver is really tough to deal with. You regularly see guards and centers stumbling forward as he throws them by.

+ Rushing over the guard, he shows the strength to dig up through the inside shoulder or stab at the outside pec and get their pads turned to create a direct path towards the passer, even if he has to take the blocker with him.

+ The explosiveness shows up when hung up with a blocker and then sees a path to get to the QB with a secondary burst, after knocking off the hands.

+ Shows a knack for getting his big paw up as the ball is being released.

+ The sack production may not have been there, but Mazi Smith did have 25 pressures across 398 pass-rush snaps and 22 of what PFF labels “other pass-rush wins.”

+ Displayed his stamina this past season, when he averaged 49 snaps in 11 games against Power-Five competition. Looking at grades and the film, he played his best over the second half of his final season, indicating that the arrow is pointing up in terms of player development

Mazi Smith scout report: Weaknesses

– Mazi Smith’s recognition for concepts still has room for improvement, too often getting caught on the wrong side of blocks.

– I’d like to see him more active with knocking away the hands of blockers and creating an angle to the ball to chase it later into plays.

– Largely subbed off on passing downs in 2021 and to some degree ’22 as well. It's an area where he doesn’t show much of a plan yet and half a career sack is tough to sell as a potential top-50 pick.

– Other than pushing guys into the depth of the pocket and throwing out some push-pull maneuvers, you don’t see much in terms of pass-rush moves, with very few clean wins on tape.

– After being labeled as this crazy athlete, we never saw him run or do the agility drills at the combine or Michigan pro day, while not even reaching 30 inches in the vert or nine feet in the broad jump (did put up 34 reps on the bench press at his pro day).

Mazi Smith scout report: Grade

First and foremost, I believe Mazi Smith was overhyped coming out of the summer. He put up freakish testing numbers at Michigan, which put him atop Bruce Feldman’s annual list. But if you look back at the ’21 tape, very little of that actually translated onto the football field, other than occasional flashes.

This past season I was impressed with his ability to be a much more impactful run-defender and the consistency despite a much larger workload. With that being said, while the upside is certainly there to become more of a pocket-pusher at the next level.

So far there’s not much diversity to his repertoire in that regard and without even a full sack to his name, I just can’t justify a first-round pick, where he’s mocked to go at times. To me the second half of round two is more appropriate for the value Mazi Smith can provide.

Grade: Late second 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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