Top 10 wide receivers in the 2021 NFL Draft

#3 2021 NFL Prospect: Devonta Smith (Alabama)

6’ 1”, 175 pounds; SR

Devonta Smith

Another top-10 receiver recruit for the Crimson Tide, Devonta Smith has a resume which stacks up with any pass-catcher coming through Tuscaloosa this millennium.

While his freshman season was rather quiet, he did end it with a bang, catching the game-winning touchdown in overtime of the 2017 National Championship game versus Georgia. Since then, his receiving yardage has increased all four seasons, leading the Tide in 2019 with 1256 yards and 14 TDs, despite being one of receivers to be drafted in the first round over these last two years.

Last season, he blew everybody out of the water, setting a new school record 1856 yards and 24 trips to end-zone, becoming the first wide receiver to win the Heisman trophy since Desmond Howard in 1991 and basically sweeping all the other awards he was up for, before book-ending his college career with another national title.

Once Jaylen Waddle went down with a broken ankle in 2020, Smitty really started to put himself in a class of his own, winning the Heisman trophy with the triple-crown for receivers, including the iconic one-handed grab versus LSU and dominant performances in the College Football Playoff.

Jerry Jeudy was my WR1 last season and I’d still give him the advantage in that regard, but since he did most of it in the slot, I would say Smith is the most technically refined all-around receiver in a long time. He just has such a great feel for setting up defenders, avoiding contact and creating separation.

Among all four receivers that will have gone in the first round these last two years, Smith was not just the most productive one, but he played the most important spot at X, while having slid inside more to replace some of the things Waddle did for the Tide last season. Smith is amazing on stutter releases and the way he gets defenders to stop their feet, but he also utilizes a lot of split releases, to not allow defenders to properly read his hips.

Nicknamed “The Slim Reaper”, this guy is just so tough to really put hands on because of how slippery he is. And he absolutely has that extra gear to run past defenders on vertical patterns. Over these last two years, he has hauled in 17 catches of 40+ yards, which is tied for first in the nation. Smith is a nightmare to cover on deep curl routes because of how he can get off the line more conservatively, then threaten with speed up the boundary, before violently drop his hips, to make the defender just keep running further downfield.

Overall, he does an unbelievable job at working back towards the quarterback and making the quarterback right. The skinny receiver led the SEC with a passer rating of 146.5 when targeted in 2019 and despite Mac Jones going his way 145 times this past season, he basically had a perfect passer rating when going his way and Smith averaged 4.39 yards per route run.

Even Jerry Jeudy said last year that Smith had the best hands of the bunch and he really catches pretty much everything thrown his way. There’s a good chance you’ll be embarrassed by Smitty at the catch point, where he plays like he is 6’6”. His ability to judge the ball’s flight and adjust his approach to it is second to none, compared anybody we’ve seen in college football since he came onto the scene.

Smith has strong hands to hold onto the catch through swipes of defenders or with somebody on his back and there are some balls, where the defender has a chance to step in front of, but number six wrestles it away instead. While Smith doesn’t necessarily have that electric make-him-miss ability like a Jaylen Waddle or one of those other shifty receivers, he is really tough to even catch once he glides downfield after the catch.

For him it’s more about being a little deceptive with head-fakes and giving defenders that one-two step, without really slowing down at all. Yet, he doesn’t shy away from contact either and takes down the shoulder at the sideline quite a bit. This guy always ends up running for longer than it would look like on crossing routes, whether it’s about giving that little dip and beating guys to the sideline or cutting upfield behind them, when they overrun it.

Smith ran a ton of slants on the backside of RPO concepts and ripped off big plays. On those, you see him have to reach behind a little, but not lose any speed, which is something that constantly shows up on tape. He doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty as a blocker either and puts in better work than a lot of receivers North of the 200-pound mark.

With that being said, at 6’1”, 175 pounds, nothing really stands out that much about Smith physically. There’s not a lot of muscle on that frame and his teammate Jaylen Waddle is certainly more explosive in short areas. His slender frame is definitely a bit of a concern, if he can’t add a little bit too it, because of how much more physical the game is in the pros.

If he gets drafted, he would be the smallest receiver in the NFL in terms of pound-for-inch. When you look at his production, while it is highly impressive what he did against SEC competition with so many other top receivers around him demanding targets, a lot of it was due to Steve Sarkisian’s scheme, getting him the ball with space off mesh concepts, feeding him on screens and creating a lot of one-on-ones downfield, which he constantly exposed.

Smith was really the only receiver to give LSU’s sensational freshman corner Derek Stingley Jr. trouble when those matched up against each other in 2019. He burned that guy on several occasions and while they weren’t going one-on-one as much in 2020, he went for over 300 yards against their big rivals from Baton Rouge in a revenge blowout over the Tigers.

While the overall production and consistency are highly impressive, he had several explosion-like performance. Smith was first among draft-eligible wide receivers in receptions and yards on screens (35 for 304) as well as on deep catches (15 for 589) last season. So he can really win in all areas. While the frame is the biggest talking point with him, I think there is room to add muscle to it, as he beat up on some of the top corners coming into the pros from the SEC.