Early NFL Draft Scouting: Iowa Hawkeyes WR Tevaun Smith
Memo to Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback C.J. Beathard — get Tevaun Smith the football. Heck, he only needs one hand.
Tevaun Smith is a really interesting case study for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He’s got good size at 6-2, 200 pounds, and phenomenal deep speed. So why didn’t he make more plays last year than 43 catches for 596 yards and three touchdowns?
Well, for starters, the Iowa quarterback situation was pretty wild last year with Jake Rudock and C.J. Beathard splitting time. Combine that with the fact that Smith wasn’t the only player being distributed the ball in a poor passing attack, and you have numbers far too low for the type of player we might have on our hands here.
Entering his senior season, the Canada native is one of the best playmakers remaining on an Iowa offense that graduated some overachievers last year in guys like Kevonte Martin-Manley and Mark Weisman.
Perhaps with Martin-Manley out of the mix, Smith will become the unquestioned top target for the Hawkeyes and ensure a much larger number of targets.
Highlight reels don’t ever tell the whole story, but they give you a pretty nice summary. I’ve watched every game of Smith’s Iowa career to this point, so this will give you the gist and I’ll provide some more detail as we go along.
At this point in the offseason, we’re only taking a look at Cliff Note versions of these players, anyway, since their entire game could evolve from last year to this. Still, here’s a fun look at what kind of playmaking ability Smith brings to the table.
Observations
- Last year at Iowa, Smith was easily the top playmaker in my opinion. He’s a really good ‘hands’ catcher and while he had some concentration drops, most of the time he didn’t allow the ball to get into his body.
- Speed. Smith can beat you in a straight line down the field, with quickness out of his breaks, or after the catch. This is, in my opinion, the most impressive part of his game.
- Catch radius. He can catch just about anything. He’s not as big as his frame will allow yet, but I think he can add some weight and be a force for your passing attack in the NFL.
- Field awareness. It’s clear that Smith, while given just a limited amount of touches for his talent, has really good awareness of where he’s at on the field. You can see in some of his touchdown catches on there as well as a tough grab near the sideline, he understands where he’s at on the field at all times and has the body control to be able to get his feet down in bounds.
- Quickness and Agility. Smith has some really nice moves with the ball in his hands. On that highlight reel, you get to see his end-around against Northern Iowa where he completely reverses field at one point. That also speaks to his field vision and playmaking instincts. He is always looking to score when he gets the ball.
Overall
I am really excited to see what Smith brings to the table in 2015. He’s the leading returning receiver on the Iowa roster, and hopefully C.J. Beathard will find plenty of ways to get him the football. He hasn’t had enough opportunity yet to show NFL scouts what he is fully capable of, but I think this year we’ll get to see a glimpse.
This is a really talented player with all the required skills of an NFL receiver. Now, it’s time to see Iowa do something it hasn’t done with other leading receivers in recent history. They need to make sure Smith is equipped and ready to make that leap to the next level.