Nice Jimmy Smith story

[Shas]

After abandoning The Sun years ago, I've been enjoying my subscription to The Athletic.

Today Zrebiec has a a nice piece on Jimmy Smith's season. In essence, Smith is pretty candid about his struggles this season to regain his quick-twitch speed coming off the achilles injury. He admits that he had been kidding himself that his one-time speed was still there, playing as if it was, but getting burned, particularly against the Saints.

But rather than sulk, he seems to have pushed himself to work through it, the article contends. It references working with Tim White during extra reps to emulate Julio Jones, with Smith working on his lateral quickness. And Smith adopting Brandon Carr's pregame warm-ups designed to "get twitchy" (Carr--the guy who has not missed a start in years).

I know it's popular on this board to trash Jimmy for his big paycheck and unmet expectations. And perhaps this is his last season as a Raven because of it.

But I urge the haters to let the season play out and invest emotions instead in the hope that Jimmy actually plays well, and the Ravens have the kind of corners in Carr, Humphrey and Smith who make a difference in the run for the playoffs.

[GOTA]

Who doesn’t want Jimmy Smith to play well? He’s on the team for 2018 so everyone wants him to be the best he possibly can this year. Obviously though when there is talk of the future there is no way he isn’t going to be included on a cap casualty list being the 2nd highest paid player of the team. It’s a completely seperate issue though from wanting him to be good in 2018.

[saintmatthew]

I think Jimmy coming back so much earlier than expected did him no favors in regards to people's expectations of his performance. We're just now getting to the 1 year mark of his injury.

[NCRAVEN]

At the Carolina game there were some fellow Ravens fans at the bar saying we needed to cut Jimmy. I made the point that he was just a few games back after tearing his achillies and lets wait for him to get his football legs back. Seems to be happening, at least a little.

[GirlsKickButt]

Who doesn’t want Jimmy Smith to play well? He’s on the team for 2018 so everyone wants him to be the best he possibly can this year. Obviously though when there is talk of the future there is no way he isn’t going to be included on a cap casualty list being the 2nd highest paid player of the team. It’s a completely seperate issue though from wanting him to be good in 2018.

We can also hope that he takes a pay cut instead of being cut. Get his salary down around $6M/year for the remaining years of the contract, maybe giving him incentives instead of base pay.

[moviemaniacx]

I want him to play well and think he will.

That being said, I believe he's gone after this year. The team has Humphrey waiting in the wings and a few other young guys who have shown promise. Then you have the ageless ironman Brandon Carr who seems to like it here and will probably want to play til he's 35 (32 now). The team (smartly) started planning for life without Jimmy a few years ago.

The DeCosta era starts in 2019. Time to move forward with the young guys and stop giving out bad back-loaded contracts.

[JimZipCode]

I've been enjoying my subscription to The Athletic.

REALLY. That's interesting all by itself.

Can you say more about it? I've declined some offers for a discounted first month or whatever; but there's often been a piece or two I've been interested in reading, blocked by the paywall.

[purple_city39]

Jimmy Smith has been a great corner his entire career minus his rookie season and 2015 after coming back from a lisfranc. He misses a lot of games, that nobody should really argue, but I've seen fans talk about how he sucks and gets "burnt" left and right and it's amazing since there's usually articles being posted about how great he plays.

Last year there were articles calling him the best while on a sprained Achilles. 2014 had articles talking about how he allowed the fewest catches and yards prior the previously mentioned article. 2013 had even RSR reporting in an article how his opposing passer rating allowed was on par with Revis and Sherman. Even fans constantly talk about how the pass defense usually goes to shit when he got injured (see Giants game in 2016).

I'm not surprised he noticed he lost a step and worked to correct that. He's seemed back to his shutdown ways the last 4 games. Say what you will about Oakland and Cincy with Green, but the Falcons and Steelers are also in that timeframe and they have weapons everywhere

[AmishlandRavenFan]

I think Jimmy coming back so much earlier than expected did him no favors in regards to people's expectations of his performance. We're just now getting to the 1 year mark of his injury.

That's crazy. Modern medicine, physical therapy, and the ability of amazingly athletic individuals to return to the highest levels of competition after bad injury is truly extraordinary.

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[GOTA]

We can also hope that he takes a pay cut instead of being cut. Get his salary down around $6M/year for the remaining years of the contract, maybe giving him incentives instead of base pay.

Absolutely. At that price he is well worth it. It would be great if both sides could work out a deal like that and keep Jimmy Smith on the Ravens

[Ravenswintitle]

REALLY. That's interesting all by itself.

Can you say more about it? I've declined some offers for a discounted first month or whatever; but there's often been a piece or two I've been interested in reading, blocked by the paywall.

It's the only site that I subscribe to and it's money well spent. They have some really great stories.

[Ravenblue]

After an abysmal couple of games against the Saints and Panthers he's certainly turned it around. An at-his-best Jimmy Smith and Marlon Humphrey have been a great tandem to watch lately.