North Carolina Central Eagles: Smith to the Pros

The North Carolina Central Eagles got into the draft party in the 4th Round.

The North Carolina Central Eagles were not supposed to provide the first defensive back from the Tobacco Road area to get drafted. That honor was supposed to go to that other Durham school, Duke, and their safety Jeremy Cash.

However it works out that Ryan Smith of the Eagles became the tenth pick of the fourth round to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is an undersized cornerback, but has good instincts for man to man coverage. Since the Buccaneers also drafted Vernon Hargreaves, it could well be that they will use Smith as a nickel cover option.

Smith is the definition of drafting potential. He played four years at the FCS level and the jury is still out on how well he will adapt to big time competition. The number of FCS players that he will face next year will decrease quite a bit.

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Smith was definitely part of the Bucs draft that was aimed at matching with the Carolina Panthers next year. While Hargreaves was drafted more toward the idea of limiting Kelvin Benjamin, Smith was drafted to prevent Ted Ginn or Devin Funchess from ripping open the slot part of the formation.

Smith also gets a distinction. He was the only player drafted from the Chapel Hill-Durham area in all seven rounds of the draft. He was even drafted a couple of picks ahead of NC State’s Juston Burris to be the highest secondary player taken from the state.

The negative here is that Smith will rise or fall with the NFC South rival Buccaneers. If it works for him, Panthers fans will eventually find him to be annoying. That is getting a little ahead of ourselves here, since he is not even a major contributor yet.

Next: Burris to Jets

Smith and the Bucs play the Panthers on October 10^th.

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