Jacksonville Linebacker Telvin Smith a Long-Term Solution for Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars were quite lucky to come away from the 2014 NFL draft with weak-side linebacker Telvin Smith.

The star Florida State speedster has rare coverage ability for a linebacker, but he fell all the way to the fifth round for two reasons. One was that NFL teams weren't all sold on him being a three-down linebacker because of his relatively small build—Smith measured in at 218 pounds at the NFL combine. The other was a failed drug test at the combine. Failed drug tests don't necessarily convey a character issue to NFL teams—they're mostly an indicator of questionable decision-making and used to question how much the player wants to be in the NFL. 

Smith has been given the majority of the playing time since Week 7, and was elevated to the starting lineup following Jacksonville's Week 11 bye. 

I studied both of his starts, and I came away from them thinking that Smith should transition well into a starting role. Here's what I saw.

Top-Notch Coverage Skills

The highlight of Smith's season was against the Cleveland Browns in Week 7, where he picked off one pass, defensed two others and forced a fumble. 

While this interception wasn't exactly an indication of superior individual play, it does show that Smith is active and has his head craned the right way. 

Perhaps the best bit of coverage I saw while studying Smith was in the first quarter against the Indianapolis Colts. Smith drew a man assignment with outside responsibility on Indianapolis tight end Coby Fleener and carried him beautifully to the safety, fitting right into Fleener's hip the whole way. The play was so well-covered that Colts quarterback Andrew Luck took a sack.

Source: NFL Game Rewind

The Jaguars don't tend to ask their linebackers to do a lot in man-to-man coverage. At least not yet. This may change as they see more of what Smith is capable of. 

The only major demerit I have for Smith in coverage is this completion by New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning to tight end Larry Donnell late in the fourth quarter. It was OK coverage, but Smith had craned his head toward Eli and was trying to read the quarterback rather than sticking on Donnell.

Source: NFL Game Rewind

A better tight end could have made more of that. Either way, I have few questions about Smith in coverage. I saw him keep up with T.Y. Hilton for 25 yards up the seam on one play. This is, to use a Josh Norris quote, where Smith wins. 

Adequate, If Overaggressive Run Defense

I don't think that Smith is necessarily destined to be a bad run defender. I've seen him get off blocks fairly well, though he was hardly flawless in that area. He's decent in navigating the trash at the line of scrimmage to find the ball-carrier. 

While his size puts him at some disadvantage as a pure arm-tackler when he's already engaged, Smith showed a good form tackle on this stick of Giants running back Rashad Jennings in the open field. 

Source: NFL Game Rewind

He may not generate enough momentum to pull a runner like Seattle's Marshawn Lynch down with his tiny frame, but most NFL backs will tumble. 

Smith's biggest issue in the run game is that he tends to favor his speed and his instincts. If he guesses wrong on a play, he sometimes has the speed to back himself into the right place when he's in coverage. If you make a mistake diagnosing something at the line of scrimmage, it's often a situation you can't recover from.

Here he is misreading a run against the Colts in Week 12. On this play he overshot the gap so far that Colts back Trent Richardson—yes, you read that right, Trent Richardson(!)—managed an 11-yard gain. 

Source: NFL Game Rewind

Woof. 

Here he is aggressively trying to skirt a pulling tight end block by Donnell to get to running back Andre Williams in the second half of the Giants game, rather than being a little more patient and forcing Williams to define his direction. 

Source: NFL Game Rewind

Smith managed to get around Donnell, but he wasn't able to do more than graze Williams, which led to a six-yard gain. 

But overall, I think Smith has shown enough as a run defender to not be a liability, and that's all Jacksonville needs to consider this pick a win given his superior coverage abilities. Smith looks like the real deal, and there are probably more than a few NFL teams regretting letting him fall into the fifth round. 

It's a tiny win for the Jaguars in their long-term rebuilding project, and it won't mean a whole lot if the bigger names like quarterback Blake Bortles, wideout Marqise Lee and tackle Luke Joeckel don't play better. But tiny wins are still wins, and every step forward helps as the Jaguars look to reshape this roster into something that can contend someday. 

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the co-host of the Three-Cone Drill podcast. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.