Akili Smith

[Yoho]

Most of us here get really interested in the draft and some of us actually believe we have insights based on the analysis we read, about what players we should choose and who will be a successful pro.

 

Yet Akili Smith was mentioned in equal terms with Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb. Recently he was dropped to third string in NFL Europe and cut by Tampa Bay. What did the scouts miss? How could they get it so wrong?

 

You would think that 4 years of college film, all-star games and individual workout would give you a reasonable idea about who could play in the NFL but Akili is living proof that it is just all a giant spin of the roulette wheel. What a difference it must be between the NFL and the college game that the scouts can be so wrong.

[PromoTheRobot]

Most of us here get really interested in the draft and some of us actually believe we have insights based on the analysis we read, about what players we should choose and who will be a successful pro.

 

Yet Akili Smith was mentioned in equal terms with Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb.  Recently he was dropped to third string in NFL Europe and cut by Tampa Bay.  What did the scouts miss?  How could they get it so wrong? 

 

You would think that 4 years of college film, all-star games and individual workout would give you a reasonable idea about who could play in the NFL but Akili is living proof that it is just all a giant spin of the roulette wheel.  What a difference it must be between the NFL  and the college game that the scouts can be so wrong.

358846[/snapback]

"Don't believe the hype!'

 

Players like Akili Smith benefitted from offensive systems in college that made them look like world beaters, with most of their stats run up against inferior opponents. Add to that college athletic departments cranking out hype to a gullible press corps, and you have a system that feeds on itself.

 

That's why so many 1st round QB's fall flat on their faces.

 

PTR

[Yoho]

"Don't believe the hype!'

 

Players like Akili Smith benefitted from offensive systems in college that made them look like world beaters, with most of their stats run up against inferior opponents.  Add to that college athletic departments cranking out hype to a gullible press corps, and you have a system that feeds on itself.

 

That's why so many 1st round QB's fall flat on their faces.

 

PTR

358850[/snapback]

 

Yet the scouts are able to pull out the Eric Crouch's of the college world and accurately predict that they do not have the arm for the pros. How can they not tell the system QB's from the genuine talents?

[Brandon]

I always thought he was badly overrated going into that draft and that he'd be a flop. They put too much emphasis on talent and not enough on production and experience. I don't care how good of an athlete he was or that he had a strong arm, he had only about half a season in college where he really played well.

[BF_in_Indiana]

When Smith came out I remember one of the biggest things said about him was how high he was scoring on the tests (academci) they were giving him and I think he scored high on the Wonderlic as well. That means jack on the football field.

 

I also thought he'd be a bust at the time.

[Yoho]

I always thought he was badly overrated going into that draft and that he'd be a flop.  They put too much emphasis on talent and not enough on production and experience.  I don't care how good of an athlete he was or that he had a strong arm,  he had only about half a season in college where he really played well.

358855[/snapback]

 

But wasn't that the Tom Brady story? No playing time. How about Drew Henson? If production were the key, Eric Crouch would be a first round pick at QB.

[Yoho]

When Smith came out I remember one of the biggest things said about him was how high he was scoring on the tests (academci) they were giving him and I think he scored high on the Wonderlic as well.  That means jack on the football field.

 

I also thought he'd be a bust at the time.

358858[/snapback]

 

How could you know he was going to be a bust? How could you know more than the scouts watching film and personal workouts. How could you predict that?

[BF_in_Indiana]

I didn't say "I predicted it" I said I thought he would be a bust. His career numbers in college weren't that great up until his senior year was a part of it, and then the biggest thing they could say about him was how "smart" he was.

[Yoho]

I didn't say "I predicted it" I said I thought he would be a bust.  His career numbers in college weren't that great up until his senior year was a part of it, and then the biggest thing they could say about him was how "smart" he was.

358863[/snapback]

 

Not sure if I understand the distinction between "predicted" and "I thought" but are you saying that all QB's who do not have good years until their senior year and who are smart are not likely to succeed? I have the feeling that there may be a few successful QB's that break that trend.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

No position in footbsll is as over-hyped and over-relied upon as the QB position. Certyainly there is the occaisional Tony Mandarich where a team spends a 1st rounder on a player who does nothing. However, a miss like an Akili Smith, a Ryan Leaf, or a Tim Crouch seems to happen virtually every year at QB.

 

This occurence would be one thing if the payoff was that if you spend your first rounder on a QB choice that if you pick correctly gets you an SB win. but the fact remains that since Dallas chose Troy Aikman in the 1st round in 1989, no team has selected a QB in the 1st round that delivered an SB win to the team which selected him.

 

Ironically the player who came closes to this feat was probably Drew Bledsoe who cleverly go ta collapsed lung which forced Belicheck to become a genius riding a 6th round pick to an SB win (well at least Drew deserved his SB ring by playing QB and throwing for the gamewinning TD in a must-win game during the SB run.

 

I'm psyched about watching JP this year, but the major fear I have that if he QBs the Bills to an SB win he will be the 1st QB selected in the first round to deliver an SB win for the team which picked him.

 

By all means it is great to have a 1st round level talent at QB, but it has worked to find a cap casualty like Trent Dilfer, a talent like an Elway who forces a trade to a better team, a talent like Steve Young or second round selection Brett Farve who get run out of the town that placed an unreachable requirement on them as all QBs have growing pains.

 

The fact is that there is no greater diffrence in production and QB quality and Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf, but they have produced the exact same number of SB wins and appearances as each other. Manning only sprinted out ahead of Leaf in playoff wins year before last after 6 or so seasons.

 

The Bills needs to follow the same route as the Steelers took with getting success out of RoboQB which is to not rely on him much at all to win games for us.

[jarthur31]

The QB position is a crap shoot!

[BF_in_Indiana]

Not sure if I understand the distinction between "predicted" and "I thought" but are you saying that all QB's who do not have good years until their senior year and who are smart are not likely to succeed?  I have the feeling that there may be a few successful QB's that break that trend.

358865[/snapback]

 

The tests were being given by his agent.

[jwolf02]

Funny story about Drew's superbowl ring... my cousin owns the cleaning company that cleaned Drew's house in East Aurora. One of the times that she was in there, she was in his bathroom and said that in the wall in front of the toilet Drew built a glass/plastic/some sort of transparent case that had nothing in it but his superbowl ring. I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems a little too farfetched to make up/exaggerate, and she never told me this story until a few months ago, after he was cut.

 

Evidentally he spent a lot of time on the crapper and figured he needed something to motivate himself while he was in there.

 

 

No position in footbsll is as over-hyped and over-relied upon as the QB position.  Certyainly there is the occaisional Tony Mandarich where a team spends a 1st rounder on a player who does nothing.  However, a miss like an Akili Smith, a Ryan Leaf, or a Tim Crouch seems to happen virtually every year at QB.

 

This occurence would be one thing if the payoff was that if you spend your first rounder on a QB choice that if you pick correctly gets you an SB win. but the fact remains that since Dallas chose Troy Aikman in the 1st round in 1989, no team has selected a QB in the 1st round that delivered an SB win to the team which selected him.

 

Ironically the player who came closes to this feat was probably Drew Bledsoe who cleverly go ta collapsed lung which forced Belicheck to become a genius riding a 6th round pick to an SB win (well at least Drew deserved his SB ring by playing QB and throwing for the gamewinning TD in a must-win game during the SB run.

 

I'm psyched about watching JP this year, but the major fear I have that if he QBs the Bills to an SB win he will be the 1st QB selected in the first round to deliver an SB win for the team which picked him.

 

By all means it is great to have a 1st round level talent at QB, but it has worked to find a cap casualty like Trent Dilfer, a talent like an Elway who forces a trade to a better team, a talent like Steve Young or second round selection Brett Farve who get run out of the town that placed an unreachable requirement on them as all QBs have growing pains.

 

The fact is that there is no greater diffrence in production and QB quality and Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf, but they have produced the exact same number of SB wins and appearances as each other.  Manning only sprinted out ahead of Leaf in playoff wins year before last after 6 or so seasons.

 

The Bills needs to follow the same route as the Steelers took with getting success out of RoboQB which is to not rely on him much at all to win games for us.

358867[/snapback]

[Bear]

I didn't say "I predicted it" I said I thought he would be a bust.  His career numbers in college weren't that great up until his senior year was a part of it, and then the biggest thing they could say about him was how "smart" he was.

358863[/snapback]

 

I remember things a little differently. I remember everyone, especially the Browns who were either going to pick him or Couch, that he had the best physical weapons out of any QB in that draft. They took Couch because of his experience.

 

Akili Smith had the tools, it just didn't happen.

[Bear]

Smith Draft

[Tolstoy]

What you are all conveniently forgetting is the human component, i.e., free will and self-determination. Scouts cannot predict with 100% accuracy because the success of a QB, and every other football player, depends as much on the player's own effort, determination, choices, habits, and character as it does on anything else. Do they put the extra practice in or not? Are they pursuing a healthy lifestyle or not? Are they doing the things they need to in order to build confidence, or not? Etc.

 

If these things could be predicted with certitude, they wouldn't be up to us. If they were not up to us, then we are mere automaton's, subject to causes and forces outside our control. If we were mere automaton's, then I had no choice in writing this post. But I know I had free choice in writing this post, as I do in misspelling the next word. Therevore, we are not automatons, and our choices are up to us, and these things can't be predicted with 100% accuracy, and scouting is a pseudoscience.

 

So there. Akili Smith failed as much because he didn't do the kinds of things he needed to, after college, to succeed in the NFL.

[zow2]

I didn't say "I predicted it" I said I thought he would be a bust.  His career numbers in college weren't that great up until his senior year was a part of it, and then the biggest thing they could say about him was how "smart" he was.

358863[/snapback]

 

I remember the same thing at that time. The guy had one great season and nothing else to show that he was a natural born QB. He is so inaccurate on his passes now...even in NFL Euro.

[ch19079]

the qb position is part mental as well as physical.

 

he couldnt hack it.

[Beerball]

"Don't believe the hype!'

 

Players like Akili Smith benefitted from offensive systems in college that made them look like world beaters, with most of their stats run up against inferior opponents.  Add to that college athletic departments cranking out hype to a gullible press corps, and you have a system that feeds on itself.

 

That's why so many 1st round QB's fall flat on their faces.

 

PTR

358850[/snapback]

Smith's failure is in part the reason the kid from Cal dropped as far as he did this year. Tedford coaches successful college QBs, but they haven't excelled in the pros. Akili is the worst of the bunch. (hopefully my memory is correct and he did play for Tedford, if not, please disregard)

[bobblehead]

When Smith came out I remember one of the biggest things said about him was how high he was scoring on the tests (academci) they were giving him and I think he scored high on the Wonderlic as well. 

358858[/snapback]

 

 

I recall there was a controversy surrounding his testing. Apparently, in his Junior year, he did awful on the tests, but had a near-miraculous turnaround on his results his senior year.