Very tough call facing Miami Dolphins as the DeVonta Smith/Ja’Marr Chase debate rages
A warning for Dolphins fans: With any player, there’s a temptation to nitpick as the draft nears. Concerns become magnified; production becomes easier to gloss over.
So get ready to hear two months of discussion about whether Alabama receiver DeVonta Smith, listed by his university as 6-1 and 175 pounds, is less equipped for NFL success than Ja’Marr Chase, who was listed at 6-1 and 200 pounds by LSU before opting out of playing last season. (Chase is now widely listed at 207.)
Former Pro Bowl receiver and current ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson, speaking of Smith’s modest size, said “outside of Tyreek Hill and Tyler Lockette, the rest of the dudes are big. We don’t talk about smaller receivers in the National Football League. We’re talking about big dudes. Those are the ones at the top of the charts —- the big guys.”
As SI.com’s Alain Poupart noted, no receiver as light as Smith has ever been selected in the top three picks of the draft. Former Jets receiver Lam Jones, who had a disappointing career, was closest at 180 pounds.
The most skilled receivers this century who weren’t much bigger than Smith: Marvin Harrison (6-0, 185) and Tyreek Hill (5-10, 185). Smith, presumably, can get up to 185 pounds at some point if his team believes he needs to.
For Harrison, durability wasn’t an issue; he played at least 15 games in 11 of his 13 seasons. Hill has played 12, 15, 15 and 16 games in his four full NFL seasons.
Smith missed two Alabama games due to injury in 2018 but none in 2019 or 2020. He missed most of the second half of last month’s national championship game with a finger injury but still had 12 receptions for 215 yards and three touchdowns in Alabama’s win against Ohio State.
But even beyond the weight disparity, some analysts simply believe Chase is the better option for Miami than Smith, despite Smith’s history with Tua Tagovailoa.
ESPN’s Marcus Spears, an LSU alum, said Chase is “the better wide receiver. Everybody just forgot because he sat out the season. I know how physical he is off the line of scrimmage. This is not to cast aspersions on DeVonte Smith. What DeVonte Smith did was amazing. But do you know who else did it? Ja’Marr Chase.”
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said of Chase: “I remember calling the national title game two years ago and going, ‘This is Larry Fitzgerald.’ This guy is the next Larry Fitzgerald with the body control, the contested catches, the way he runs his routes. He’s absolutely fantastic. I would take Ja’Marr.”
So is it justified to have concerns about Smith’s size? Some evaluators say yes.
Former NFL scout Bucky Brooks and former Dolphins vice president/football operations Mike Tannenbaum — two former NFL evaluators with national media jobs at NFL Network and ESPN, respectively — expressed some concern about Smith’s size.
Brooks: “DeVonta Smith is a great player but the size is a major concern. It’s hard for some scouts to envision drafting a 170 pound wide receiver at the top of the board... We haven’t seen a lot of “skinny” wide receivers dominate the pro game. It is what it is.”
Tannenbaum: “I see him as a top-five pick. I went to the national championship game and he was the best player on the field. Ohio State simply couldn’t cover him. They doubled him, they tried to jam him, they rolled safeties over the top and he was by far the best player. He has some Marvin Harrison in him in terms of you know what’s coming and you can’t stop it because he’s such a great route runner.
“My only concern with taking him in the top five is the cautionary tale of Tavon Austin, explosive, undersized player that never really panned out in the NFL. [Smith is] a much better route runner [than Austin]. But how is he going to be consistently getting off jams and getting off the line of scrimmage. That’s the big question mark.”
But ESPN’s Louis Riddick, who previously was a player personnel executive for the Eagles and Redskins, said the jam-at-the-line issue doesn’t concern him.
“There are a few teams that really jam off the wide receiver,” Riddick said. “If you want to get a wide receiver by the line of scrimmage, you can by formations. I’m not concerned with that as far as DeVonta is concerned.
“He’s just a very skilled route runner. He came from a very pro type of system that coach Sark [new Texas coach Steve Sarkisian] was running at Alabama. [The offense] looks a lot like what Kansas City does. He excelled at all of them, whether it was inside or outside, short routes, intermediate routes, contented catch situations. He is going to be a very, very good player.”
And ESPN’s Todd McShay pointed out that “Marvin Harrison didn’t have great size. He was a little lean and his lower body didn’t look the part. And he’s a Hall of Famer.”
So who’s the safer pick? Depends on what criteria is used. In one sense, it’s Chase because of the size. But in another sense, it would be Smith because who could argue with taking the MVP of the national title game, a player who already has a chemistry with the starting quarterback?
Of course, there are two ways the Dolphins could have the decision made for them: If Smith goes second to the Jets (Mel Kiper Jr. projects this as a real possibility) or Miami trades down slightly from No. 3.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores spent a lot of time with Smith at the Senior Bowl, predicted he will be a very good NFL player and by all accounts has no issues with his size. What’s unknown, of course, is what Flores and general manager Chris Grier think of Chase, who eventually will spend time with the Dolphins decision-makers via Zoom calls.
Draft analyst Tony Pauline, of profootballnetwork.com, said teams generally rate Chase ahead of Smith.
Pauline, in fact, rates Chase the second-best player in the draft, behind only Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Chase, Pauline said, is “dare I say, a better NFL prospect than [Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe] Burrow — the only difference is Chase catches the ball rather than throws it. He is fast, tough, and instinctive. He makes the difficult catch in a crowd, displays next-level pass-catching skills, and shows a tremendous feel for the position.”
And The Draft Network’s Jordan Reid made an interesting point about Chase on Twitter: “Chase is going to have to land with a QB that throws a lot of faith throws. Even when he’s not clearly winning, throw it anyway and let him sort it out. He’s not always going to win cleanly, but he’s physical and high percentage with winning at the catch point on all levels.
“Beating athletic cornerbacks will always be a challenge for him, but he’s so much of a bully in route stems and at the catch point that it doesn’t really matter. Alabama, Florida, and Miss. St. attempted to get physical with him with lots of surprise jump jams, but he’s so strong that he was able to shake them off.”
Here was my Monday piece on the latest on Dolphins’ free agent wide receiver options.
Here’s my Tuesday piece, with Adam Beasley, on Jason Sanders’ contract extension, the consequences and what comes next.
Here’s my Tuesday Heat piece exploring why Miami is being torched by journeymen and obscure players and the startling data and a contract change involving Kendrick Nunn.
Here’s my Tuesday Marlins nuggets column with Craig Mish, including an odd behind-the-scenes thing that happened with a team employee in recent days.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 5:20 PM.
