One of our resident 2020-2022 Bucs die-hards has spoken. He gets very emotional when it comes to the health and well being of Twommy, so it is easy for him to ignore that Smith graded very highly as a pass blocker in 2021. Let’s take emotion out of the equation and look at some facts and possible extenuating circumstances that may have affected Smith’s 2022 performance.
PFF's Ben Linsey reveals the top 32 offensive tackles in the NFL heading into the 2022 season, which includes San Francisco 49ers tackle Trent Williams taking the top spot.
www.pff.com
24.
Donovan Smith,
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Smith has played a lot of football over the past seven years.
Most offensive snaps at tackle since 2015
No offensive tackle has logged more snaps than he has since 2015, and Smith underwhelmed for much of that span. However,
Smith has managed to gradually increase his PFF grade in each of his seven NFL seasons, improving it from 62.5 as a rookie in 2015 to a career-best 80.5 overall grade in 2021.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Donovan Smith, left tackle
Smith has gotten better as a player each year, allowed just one sack in 2021 and never accrued more than five holding penalties (he had three last year). While right tackle Tristan Wirfs gets most of the accolades, Smith has been a quiet and steady presence for the Buccaneers since making the All-Rookie team as a second-round pick out of Penn State in 2015. While the Buccaneers prefer to run up the gut most frequently and may prefer Wirfs in gotta-have-it third down situations, it’s interesting that the Bucs have had more success running between the left guard and tackle and the left tackle and end, than the opposite side. Smith nets the Buccaneers roughly a yard per play. As an aside, we obviously can’t put Mike Evans here, but according to NFL GSIS statistics, he makes the Buccaneers a full 1.14 yards better
per play just by virtue of stepping on the field. Smith isn’t far behind, though, and
he compiled one of the best pass-blocking grades in the NFL a year ago, per Pro Football Focus’s rankings.
The Bucs are expected to release veteran LT Donovan Smith in a salary cap move and could have Pro Bowl RT Tristan Wirfs replace him.
www.pewterreport.com
Meanwhile, Smith had his worst year as a pro, evidenced by a 59.3 overall grade from PFF, including a woeful 40.8 run blocking grade. Smith was coming off his best season with the Bucs in 2021, but
he hyperextended his elbow in a Week 1 win at Dallas and wound up missing four games. The eight-year pro was also affected by some tragic off-field issues last year.
The Buccaneers released starting left tackle Donovan Smith on Tuesday.
www.espn.com
A second-round draft pick in 2015, Smith, 29, went on to start 124 regular-season games -- sixth most of any offensive lineman in the league from 2015 to 2022.
But he had one of his worst seasons as a starter in 2022, with a pass rush win rate of 78.3% and a run block win rate of 64.9%. He also dealt with elbow and foot injuries during the 2022 season, causing him to miss four regular-season games.
So….Smith was a good to very good starting LT in 2021 but had a poor 2022. His 2022 performance was possibly affected by injury and off-field distractions. If the Pats feel as though 2022 was an aberration, then he is worth a look.
