For some reason, Bill Belichick and Nick Caserio have found it to be almost impossible to draft a dominant wide receiver, as Arizona State’s N’Keal Harry serves as the most recent example of Belichick’s strange blind spot on his otherwise extremely sharp scouting eye. While Cam Newton wasn’t playing like an MVP, he wasn’t given the Greatest Show on Turf around him, as the likes of Jakobi Meyers and Damiere Byrd shouldn’t be featured options in a passing game. Belichick could solve all his woes by moving up in the draft and securing himself the rights to a dominant receiver like Smith.
The Saban-Belichick connection has had an impact on Belichick’s scouting eye, as there are a large number of players on his roster who either played against Saban in the SEC or played for him at Alabama. With or without a relationship with Saban, it’s easy to see that Smith is the type of player who can step right in and make an immediate contribution, even with Josh McDaniels’ extremely thick playbook. With Julian Edelman starting to get a little long in the tooth, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Belichick tried to replace him with Smith as the main playmaker on offense and get New England back to the playoffs.