Rams Rookie OT Jason Smith Disappointing In Camp?

Short of calling Rams first-round draft pick Jason Smith a disappointment, team insiders agree that he is far behind second-round draft pick James Laurinaitis in terms of his development at the pro level. While Laurinaitis appears to have quickly latched on to the starting MLB job, we hear there's a possibility Smith might start the regular season behind Adam Goldberg at right tackle. It's worth noting, though, that Smith has shown major improvement recently after struggling early in training camp.

Source: Pro Football Weekly

 

I never got why people were raving about his run blocking in the run up to the draft considering he was in pass pro 90% of the time

 

Man we were so lucky that Monroe fell to us :icon_cheesygrin:

 

i could have told you this was going to happen

 

you did and so did I, he was a one sided Tackle that needed good coaching.

 

I'm deffo no homer, but using Laurinaitis as a comparison is clasping onto straws in terms of an article. Laurinaitis not only was an outstanding starting LB in one of the nations best schools for basically all of his college career and earned multiple gongs, but he had no competition at his position in camp either so to use someone who had to compete against a second year undrafted FA against someone who had to compete with a 5 & 7 year vet is ridiculous.

 

dude was a second overall pick. he should be starting.

 

im just saying that if they were hoping to get orlando pace v2.0 they picked the wrong LT....smith is a great athlete but hes not a great tackle. Monroe and oher are better LTs, i never bought the hype on smith. he never played with his hand down, pass blocked all the time and wasnt great at it even though he should have been....made some headlines by saying he likes to physically assault the opposition at the combine. no doubt the rams came down to smith and monroe and maybe sanchez but i think picking smith was a mistake....hes no where near guys that went near the top like that like joe thomas, jake long, ryan clady, branden albert, brick ferguson, jordan gross, but more like some of the letdowns over the years that were taken very high

i just think there were better options available

 

Very true, at that pick he was a risk and to be honest Eugene Monroe would have made more sense, but I'm optimistic that Smith will be the starting left tackle at the close of the season.