Ito Smith?

[kris_kapsner]

What do you gents think of Ito Smith?

Interesting article regarding him here.

https://www.playerprofiler.com/article/ ... t-profile/

[Jigga94]

Situation isn't great with Freeman and Coleman, but Tevin is an FA in 2019 and will be more expensive than they'd like. So MAYBE he gets a shot then.

The stats and analysis on Ito look great so he's worth a flier later on in drafts but I wouldn't expect anything. He's a little undersized and labeled as a 3rd down back, so maybe he's another Duke/Riddick type player. The production compared to Barkley's was interesting as well but he was at Southern Miss...

[ninotoreS]

Notice how his torso looks so much bigger than his legs? Ito shouldn't have skipped all those leg days while focusing so much on his bench press. His weight distribution is uneven and it hurts his balance. It's why his performance in the shuttle and 3-cone was terrible. On tape, the consequence is that his footwork is sloppy (takes too many steps) and his acceleration/burst sucks out of stop-start cuts.

I facepalm at the articles I've seen enthusing about Ito's jump-cuts; they're actually slow, don't cover much ground, and will be ineffective at the pro level. You wanna see a truly good Sprolesian jump-cut in a midget scat-back from this year's class, go look at Boston Scott. Then note his well balanced body proportions, and that his agility score is awesome despite a much higher BMI than Ito's. Not a coincidence. Scott went two rounds after Ito.

I'm a Freeman owner, so for potential 2019 handcuff purposes I have looked closely at Ito Smith. I have concluded he's a terrible 4th round reach by Sark, and he's basically just another Terron Ward with worse balance and better straight-line speed. Falcons have decided not to re-sign Ward only to draft his equally replacement-level clone.

[Defender]

So after the top 8-9 RBs, I see the next ~10 as very close. I have a share of Ito Smith, only because my league-mates were so low on him (he was the last RB remaining in that Tier of Ten). When drafting him, I figured he could become the poor-man’s Tevin Coleman in 2019. But after reading the OP’s article, I do have hope he can be a true compliment back, just like Coleman was.

Thanks for the read!

[whodunnit]

Notice how his torso looks so much bigger than his legs? Ito shouldn't have skipped all those leg days while focusing so much on his bench press. His body distribution is uneven and it hurts his balance. It's why his performance in the shuttle and 3-cone was terrible. On tape, the consequence is that his footwork is sloppy (takes too many steps) and his acceleration/burst sucks out of stop-start cuts.

I facepalm at the articles I've seen enthusing about Ito's jump-cuts; they're actually slow, don't cover much ground, and will be ineffective at the pro level. You wanna see a truly good Sprolesian jump-cut in a midget scat-back from this year's class, go look at Boston Scott. Then note how his body distribution is so much more balanced than Ito's. Not a coincidence. Scott went two rounds after Ito.

I'm a Freeman owner, so for potential 2019 handcuff purposes I have looked closely at Ito Smith. I have concluded he's a terrible 4th round reach by Sark, and he's basically just another Terron Ward with worse balance and better straight-line speed. Falcons have decided not to re-sign Ward only to draft his equally replacement-level clone.

I read somewhere he has some sort of medical condition where he decided to compensate by bench pressing a lot... If I can find it, I'll share it. Can't remember where I saw it posted.

[ninotoreS]

I read somewhere he has some sort of medical condition where he decided to compensate by bench pressing a lot... If I can find it, I'll share it. Can't remember where I saw it posted.

I am 90% certain you're remembering something you read about Boston Scott, not Ito Smith.

Scott was diagnosed with Cramp-Fasciculation Syndrome in '15, and he went crazy in the weight room because supposedly muscle-strength helps prevent the incidence of symptoms. But seemingly unlike Ito, Scott spent just as much time doing squats as bench-press.

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UIemN0Ebt8

[whodunnit]

I read somewhere he has some sort of medical condition where he decided to compensate by bench pressing a lot... If I can find it, I'll share it. Can't remember where I saw it posted.

I am 90% certain you're remembering something you read about Boston Scott, not Ito Smith.

Scott was diagnosed with Cramp-Fasciculation Syndrome in '15, and he went crazy in the weight room because supposedly muscle-strength helps prevent the incidence of symptoms. But seemingly unlike Ito, Scott spent just as much time doing squats as bench-press.

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UIemN0Ebt8

sure was! Thanks, sorry about that!

[ninotoreS]

That's what we're here for.

[dvpkwys]

Don’t know much about him but he had some decent plays last week. Obviously with Freeman out he is getting some touches behind Coleman. What are thoughts on him moving forward?

[GronkosaurusRex]

When Coleman leaves this offseason, Smith will be top backup behind an often nicked D.Freeman. Definitely a stash considering u might get 4 weeks of starts out of him with Freeman and his bad knee and concussions.

[MichaelScarn]

I think he's worth the add. He had a tremendous college career and once Coleman leaves he should be the top backup assuming no FA's are brought in.

[James McGhee]

I was a big fan of Ito Smith coming out of college. I thought his college tape was really impressive. And I was honestly a bit surprised that after being snubbed at the combine he was taken in the 4th round. I think that speaks volumes. He's smaller but he runs pretty tough. I have shallow rosters in my dynasty league and I'm hoping to snag him at the end of the season for next year.

[Gtdano_14]

I think he's talented enough (plus drafted high enough) to stick around the league for a while as the COP guy. Solid college production in all phases coupled with Coleman being gone next year made taking him in the 3rd round an easy choice.

[dvpkwys]

great info - thanks all.

[Life of Pablo]

After the unfortunate Devonta Freeman IR news, I was surprised to see a lack of discussion on here regarding Judge Ito (sidenote: Anyone else find it annoying that 3-letter words get ignored when searching for threads? It's really disrupted my ability to find Cam Newton and Ito Smith threads).

I think he's been one of the more impressive rookie RBs so far this year, especially given the explosive offense he is on and his immediate role in one of the league's more talented backfields of Freeman/Coleman. He's been very successful so far with his redzone chances, and he's proven to be very capable at pass-catching in college at Southern Miss. He also had his fair share of believers pre-draft, one example being this article: https://www.playerprofiler.com/article/ ... t-profile/

The Falcons coaching staff seems to have a lot of trust in him, given the early usage he has seen so far. Then there's the whole Falcons RB situation after this year. No guarantees but consensus seems to be that the Falcons will let Coleman walk (maybe this could change with the Freeman injury?). Freeman is sadly becoming less reliable with the injuries piling up, and he could be gone by the end of 2019 (some say he could even be cut after this year but I find that unlikely). Ito was a 2017 4th rounder, while Freeman was a 2014 4th and Coleman was a 2015 3rd. It's certainly within reason to think that Ito could be as good as both of them if not better, especially given the Falcons recent successful track record of drafting RBs. He's got very similar measurables to Freeman in particular when comparing their combine/pro day numbers.

Ito is not a big guy, but he seems to be just big enough (5'9" 200 lbs) to be able to handle a solid workload of 15+ touches consistently. And they're certainly not afraid to put the rock in his hands near the goal line as we've already seen. He's shown good balance and has the frame to support that. Getting off-topic but I'll bold this part as it's basically the TLDR of my post: I think there's a very realistic scenario where Ito is the starting Falcons RB as early as next year and potentially beyond.

Anyway, I'm just rambling at this point but want to know what you guys think. I feel like he is a firm hold with some sneaky long-term upside, and maybe I'm biased as an owner but I already have him above several of the "top" rookie RBs at the beginning of the season. I think it would have to take a mid 1st for me to move him, and I have him ahead of RoJo, Penny, and Royce (as well as Lindsay). So he'd be my #6 rookie RB right now after (no order) Barkley, Sony, Chubb, Kerryon, and Guice.

I'm probably sipping the Judge Ito juice way too much. What do you guys think? Sell high, or are you with me and see some potential long-term value here?