I wish it was not the case, but I think former Georgia Bulldogs standout Arian Smith went to the worst spot imaginable for him in the 2025 NFL Draft. The idea of Smith allured me for years while covering and rooting for the Dawgs. However, there is a reason he spent five years in college and went to the New York Jets in the fourth round this year. He has blazing speed, but the hands of a defensive back.
It just so happens that his first NFL head coach is just like his college football head coach, a former defensive back. Aaron Glenn could be great at this, much like how Kirby Smart is great the college game, but we all know which side of the ball they favor. Right now, Smith comes to Florham Park as a glorified gadget player, one that a team that rarely knows what it is doing offensively is sure to waste.
Had Smith gone to a team like the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers or really anyone stemming from the McVay/Shanahan tree, I would have been in favor of it. Instead, the Jets are hoping Tanner Engstrand can make the most out of his speedy wide receiver in his first season as an NFL offensive coordinator. So much is working against Smith in this situation that it hurts my soul.
I would love nothing more than to eat crow over his path to success in New York, but I am so dubious.
New York Jets must find ways to get the ball into Arian Smith's hands
No, Smith is not going to be asked to be a No. 1 wide receiver in this offense, or in any NFL offense for that matter. When it works out for him on the receiving end of a play, you can hear the home crowd erupt. Conversely, you can feel the deafening silence if he does make a bit play on the road. Unfortunately, Jets fans will get used to the perpetual sighs that come from his regular dropped balls.
People heaped a lot of criticism onto Carson Beck's plate last season, and some of it deservedly so. If you were paying close attention to Georgia games last year, you could tell that something was not quite right with the UGA receiving corps. Smith's talent was obvious, but it was such a tough nut to crack. In the end, he left Athens without being the dynamic playmaker we thought he would become.
Besides Engstrand having to figure out what he is doing as a first-time NFL offensive coordinator, he also has to set up Justin Fields for success in what will be his final attempt to prove he is a franchise quarterback. Fields was a great player at Ohio State when he had more talent on his team than everybody else in the Big Ten. When he was at Georgia, he could not even beat out Jake Fromm...
What I am getting at is we have a dysfunctional franchise that just underwent a regime change, hoping that a quarterback the Pittsburgh Steelers did not even want can open up Pandora's box for a frustrating wide receiver that Beck and not even Stetson Bennett IV could get the most out of. I can get behind a high-risk, high-reward draft pick, but the Jets are not the franchise to be making them.
The other thing at play here is the MetLife Stadium turf. It is as bad as what they have at Neyland.