re: Saints sign Tackle Jason Smith

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In an interesting move, New Orleans picked up the 2009 draft’s second overall pick, Jason Smith. What makes this fascinating is that while he may not have been everything the Rams wanted, on and off the field, when he did play, he wasn’t a complete disaster — certainly not by the pass-blocking standards of, say, 2007 fifth overall selection Levi Brown in Arizona, who is still with his team.

Of course he had bad days — in 2010 Lamar Houston and Tamba Hali both made hay against him, and in the last game of that season he gave Raheem Brock a career game (3 sacks, a hit and 7 hurries). However, that same year, he had perfect games in pass pro against Washington, San Diego, Denver and San Francisco, with only a single hit allowed against Arizona. That, his only full season in the NFL, saw him register a poor but hardly criminal -6.5 grade with at least 12 other starting RTs grading more poorly, including Phil Loadholt, Bryan Bulaga and Anthony Davis.

Last year, with the Jets, he played almost exclusively as a sixth offensive lineman in the tight end position. Clearly it’s difficult to properly evaluate him there, but in his 265 snaps he generally graded positively, particularly as a run blocker.

That’s a very similar record to a certain Zach Strief in 2010 who fulfilled an almost identical role for the Saints before subsequently moving on to become their starting right tackle. Much as we like Strief, he struggled badly with injury last year and it’s possible the Saints see a similar career path for Smith — initially playing him as an extra OL and if all goes well (or if Strief gets injured again), promoting him to right tackle.

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