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NFL teams are now beginning to conduct their top-30 interviews with prospects they have some interest in. These aren’t necessarily the top-30 prospects on their respective boards, rather, they bring in players that they like and expect to see at various points in the draft.
The Indianapolis Colts are no different. Recently, we’ve gotten one of our first sniffs at a later round option they are considering as Dane Brugler has reported that Tremon Smith, CB from Central Arkansas, will take a top-30 visit with the Colts.
#CentralArkansas CB Tremon Smith is a popular guy these days. Top-30 visits set up with the #Browns, #Eagles, #Raiders, #Colts and #Chiefs. Excellent ball production. Tested really well. Looking more and more like a draft pick.
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) April 3, 2018
And Tremon has been extremely productive. The past two seasons Smith has racked up 76 total tackles, 29 passes defensed and 7 interceptions and has an added caveat of being a weapon in the return game as well. We know that the Colts will be targeting several positions on the defensive side of the ball, and we can expect to see some of the prospects they see as Day 1, and Day 2 options to be getting reported quite soon.
The Colts and Philadelphia Eagles have both recently met with the Bears’ cornerback according to Eric Edholm. Being as there isn’t a great deal of available film on Smith, below is a bit of a highlight reel with some of his more splashy plays.
On the other hand, I went ahead and broke down a full game of his versus Houston Baptist and though it’d at least add some context to what you will see from him snap to snap.
Smith does have good footwork, focuses on his assignments, has great ball skills and has good recovery speed to work himself back into contention for the pass. Personally, I’d like to see him be more physical in run support, but one game is very difficult to pin down any real tendencies.
He is a bit undersized (listed at 6-foot, but is closer to 5-foot-10) for what we’re accustomed to seeing from Colts targets in the defensive backfield, but they are going to be focusing on a different type of ball hawk in the new scheme.
The Colts are working more towards zone corners who can read, react and break on the football according to Chris Ballard. Smith would give the Colts a little bit of both worlds as a late-round prospect.