Alabama Football: Part 3 – Outlook for the Tide’s drafted players
The series on recently drafted Alabama football player’s outlooks in the NFL continues with the three players drafted in rounds 2-4. These players were high impact guys at Alabama and will look to be immediate contributors on their new teams in the NFL.
Now that we have looked at longshot undrafted free agents and the overlooked (perhaps) talent drafted in rounds five and six, we look at three former Alabama football players who could be immediate impact players or future replacements for aging veterans.
Usually, guys drafted in the middle rounds are highly talented, but there was just something about them that left scouts less than convinced about their potential as an NFL player.
Sometimes it is the position they play, sometimes it is size, and sometimes it is how their skillset translates to the NFL. Other times it is a character issue or concern about motivation. For these three Alabama football players, it is a combination of those things. Here are the three Bama players along with their draft position and NFL team.
- Irv Smith Jr. TE – Round 2 Pick 50 Minnesota Vikings
- Damien Harris RB – Round 3 Pick 87 New England Patriots
- Christian Miller OLB/DE – Round 4 Pick 115 Carolina Panthers
Without further ado, let’s take a look at each of these guys and how they will figure into each of their team’s futures.
Irv Smith Jr. – Going into the draft Irv was looked at as one of three guys with star potential at TE. The other two being the duo out of Iowa, T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant.
For many analysts, it was a coin flip for who would be the first TE drafted. What wasn’t up for debate though, was that those three were the best TEs in the draft. Ultimately, NFL head coaches and GMs agreed.
Hockenson was the first off the board at number eight and Fant was second at twenty. Irv stayed on the board longer than most people thought, especially Alabama football fans. A lot of people believed he would be the replacement in New England for the retiring Rob Gronkowski. Instead, the Patriots went for WR Nkeal Harry with the last pick in the first round.
This started Irv’s short fall out of the first round into the middle of the second round. He fell right into the lap of the Vikings who have an aging vet at TE, Kyle Rudolph, who has had an up and down NFL career.
After a slow start to his career, Rudolph was a favorite target of Vikings’ QBs in 2016 and 2017. Rudolph’s stats took a dip last season. Although he had more receiving yards than in 2017, he had half as many TDs, which is huge for a TE who is supposed to be the number 1 red zone target on a team.
Rudolph still figures to be TE1 this season, but Irv’s situation in Minnesota is very similar to the situation O.J. Howard was in when he was taken by Tampa Bay a couple of years ago.
Just like O.J. and Cameron Brate in Tampa Bay, Irv is more of a downfield threat like O.J. and Rudolph is more of a blocker and red zone threat like Cameron Brate. It took O.J. a full season before he took over as the top TE on the Buccaneers, and I see something similar happening with Irv in Minnesota.
Honestly, I could see Irv taking over the top TE role sooner than Howard did. Howard came in on the heels of Brate’s best season in his career. Brate was considered one of the best TE in the NFL the season before O.J. arrived.
In Irv’s case, he is coming into a situation in which the incumbent is coming off a down season and is a 9-year veteran at a very physically demanding position. Rob Gronkowski just retired after his ninth season at TE.
The point is, Irv could find himself as the top TE target of Kirk Cousins sooner rather than later. My prediction for his first season is he will sit behind Rudolph early and see only limited touches. Around the halfway point in the season, he will see more targets and end the season close to Rudolph in terms of total stats.
We will really see what Irv’s career has in store starting in year two. I see star potential in Irv and he finds himself in a good situation in Minnesota.