Torrey Smith, WR, Maryland, visited the Falcons yesterday. The article mentioned just now tells a good story about Smith and his quest to overcome adversity throughout his entire life, including being the first in his family to achieve a college degree (which he did in 2.5 years!).
In my Falcons Draft Needs post about receivers, I mentioned I had a bad feeling about Smith, saying he reminded me too much of Michael Jenkins on film. I looked at their combine (Well, pro day for Jenkins. He was out with a groin for the combine) numbers, they are indeed similar. Jenkins, despite being all of 6'4"+, ran in the neighborhood of a 4.4 40.
Smith's numbers that will ultimately matter to a team (agility numbers) are much improved over Jenkins's numbers. Smith has a 7 inch advantage in the vertical jump, as well as two-tenth advantages in both the 20 yard cone drill and the 60 yard shuttle. He only did the bench press 19 times, which seems low, but upon further review, it was actually one of the higher numbers at the combine, so strength isn't an issue either.
Most of his numbers were above average at the combine. He wasn't a superhero numbers-wise, but he did well enough to deserve his #3 rated WR status.
Torrey Smith is one of Maryland's all-time great receivers numbers-wise, both for his receptions as well as his kickoff returns, however he appears to catch with his body a bit too much in some highlights that I've watched. In the times he does catch with his hands, the ball stops in an almost odd fashion. It's almost like he stops the ball forcefully instead of letting it come to him.
He's certainly got the talent to be around when we pick at 27, but would you pull the trigger on him? Obviously, pass rush is a major need, but if all of the good DEs are weeded out by the time we pick, would Smith be a good pick with the assumption that we take a slightly lesser DE in round 2? What would you do?