What to do with Donovan Smith?

[Cheb]

I am surprised by all the folks defending Donovan Smith.

Donovan Smith was the second highest paid left tackle in football this year behind Garett Bolles. He's going to be the fifth highest paid player on our team next season. Does anyone think he deserved that salary, or will deserve getting paid as a top player moving forward?

Refusing to move on from him because you're afraid it'll get worse just boggles my mind. Donovan allowed the most sacks of his career last year, a ton of QB hits, and took yards and points off the board every game. Folks here are scared of shitty play, but it's already happening and we are paying out the nose for it.

Get a rookie in there, or move Wirfs to the left, or keep Josh Wells; I don't much care. But keeping Donovan at this juncture is a liability, and paying him that kinda money for bad play is borderline negligent.

Does letting him go have a non-zero chance to be Donald Penn 2.0, and he goes on to have a career resurgence elsewhere, yes. Should we pay him $18 million next year because we're scared that'll happen, no we should not.

[King Bootz]

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have let Donovan Smith play LT uncontested for 8 straight seasons. Twice they have given him a new contract.

Fans may feel 1 way about him. Clearly this franchise feels completely different.

[Buc2]

I honestly can’t understand what this team sees in him that they, not only keep him, but pay out the ass for him. It’s mind boggling.

[Cheb]

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have let Donovan Smith play LT uncontested for 8 straight seasons. Twice they have given him a new contract.

Fans may feel 1 way about him. Clearly this franchise feels completely different.

What you said is true, but the tense is present instead of past, an important distinction. Just because the Bucs have kept him around doesn't mean he's bulletproof moving forward.

[MJW]

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have let Donovan Smith play LT uncontested for 8 straight seasons. Twice they have given him a new contract.

Fans may feel 1 way about him. Clearly this franchise feels completely different.

It's fair to say he's reached new lows this season. At this point, there's no way to squint, tilt your head, and believe you're looking at a starting caliber NFL left tackle. The only argument for keeping him is specious - he's looked better than his replacements. This is only because we've expended zero capital or effort in attempting to find a worthwhile one.

$15 Mil Cap Savings. This has to be done.

[King Bootz]

I don't think Donovan Smith can reach any lower than he did in 2016. He was absolutely horrible that season. Seems like he had a penalty every week. Constantly gave up pressures, whiffed on run blocking. But we put our head down and kept him in place.

I'd love nothing more than to replace him. But at this point OBP has given no indication that they are interested in doing so. We'll see.

[MJW]

I don't think Donovan Smith can reach any lower than he did in 2016. He was absolutely horrible that season. Seems like he had a penalty every week. Constantly gave up pressures, whiffed on run blocking. But we put our head down and kept him in place.

I'd love nothing more than to replace him. But at this point OBP has given no indication that they are interested in doing so. We'll see.

Smith being back would be a bigger shock for me that Leftwich coming back would have been. But you're right, OBP does what OBP does.

[IronDog]

An idea, likely based on ignorance, but here goes...

The last several years Smith relied on his partner-in-crime to bolster/cover for his quality of play, but then Ali went and retired and Smith's security blanket fell crumpled to the floor in a new pile of piss-poor play, accented by drive-killing holding penalties. Some here want to punt him to the curb (note, I also am in favor of such) and move our stud RT over to replace him. Here comes the ignorance part...One could assume the principle driver being we need someone competent to cover "the Blind Side". Mostly due to the fact that most QB's have to cover the eyes in the backs of their heads. The idea...get a left handed QB that now has a stud covering his "Blind Side", just that this is now the RT position. This would eliminate concerns about moving Wirfs to the other side, and lets him continue his great play.

Just a thought, being as we really don't have someone ANYBODY feels good about under/behind center.

[King Bootz]

Ali did no such thing for Smith. He's always been trash-to-mediocre at LT. 2016 was probably his worst season. We had a winning year but I recall times where Donovan looked so out of shape and slow. He held all the time and had a shit ton of false starts because he was too slow to get out of the stance.

[Grahamburn]

So the consensus seems to be that Donavon Smith sucks but he’s better than nothing. What a shitty position we find ourselves in. And it’s all Licht’s fault for not addressing this problem before he wound up having to extend him last time.

He was a fairly integral part of what was an amazing offense in 2020 and 2021.

[Miller4Prez64]

So the consensus seems to be that Donavon Smith sucks but he’s better than nothing. What a shitty position we find ourselves in. And it’s all Licht’s fault for not addressing this problem before he wound up having to extend him last time.

He’s not better than nothing at a 18 million dollar price tag. PFF grades aren’t that end all of judging offensive lineman, but they had him graded as bad as any tackle in the league. Even without the fancy grades, any of us that watched knew that Donovan was playing horrible.

So yes, some young kid at a fraction of the price would be better. Even if he’s playing like trash, so was Smith at the price of a premium player.

[Buc2]

So the consensus seems to be that Donavon Smith sucks but he’s better than nothing. What a shitty position we find ourselves in. And it’s all Licht’s fault for not addressing this problem before he wound up having to extend him last time.

He’s not better than nothing at a 18 million dollar price tag. PFF grades aren’t that end all of judging offensive lineman, but they had him graded as bad as any tackle in the league. Even without the fancy grades, any of us that watched knew that Donovan was playing horrible.

So yes, some young kid at a fraction of the price would be better. Even if he’s playing like trash, so was Smith at the price of a premium player.

You're preaching to the choir. I wanted him gone before Arians ever got here.

[Doctor]

So the consensus seems to be that Donavon Smith sucks but he’s better than nothing. What a shitty position we find ourselves in. And it’s all Licht’s fault for not addressing this problem before he wound up having to extend him last time.

I mean, yes and no. For one, we won a SB so clearly the problem was in fact addressed enough. Not like there aren't other holes to fill. I would've loved Jonah Williams, but Devin White was key to our playoff run (and I had as BPA anyway). I can go back and hindsight some drafts but really the only time I remember truly being very upset at passing on an OL was Tunsil. But given the attitude of the league towards weed at the time it wasn't unreasonable.

An idea, likely based on ignorance, but here goes...

The last several years Smith relied on his partner-in-crime to bolster/cover for his quality of play, but then Ali went and retired and Smith's security blanket fell crumpled to the floor in a new pile of piss-poor play, accented by drive-killing holding penalties. Some here want to punt him to the curb (note, I also am in favor of such) and move our stud RT over to replace him. Here comes the ignorance part...One could assume the principle driver being we need someone competent to cover "the Blind Side". Mostly due to the fact that most QB's have to cover the eyes in the backs of their heads. The idea...get a left handed QB that now has a stud covering his "Blind Side", just that this is now the RT position. This would eliminate concerns about moving Wirfs to the other side, and lets him continue his great play.

Just a thought, being as we really don't have someone ANYBODY feels good about under/behind center.

I honestly don't hate this at all. Smith should've been a RT anyway. But trying to find a lefty QB seems like a way out there solution.

Smith had his worst season, and it's not a good bet to think it's going to get any better. This draft has a lot of the kind of OL Licht likes to draft and a good chance a stud one could fall to us, but also a lot will depend on what our OC wants to do. So far Licht has been really good at empowering our coaches to do their thing.

[King Bootz]

[Snake]

[nybf]

[Snake]

And the guy has an avatar with Smith and a bunch of flags I’m dead.

[Grahamburn]

What is who buggin about?

[Doctor]

Idk what Smith is so comfortable with. 90% of his value has come from the fact that years of shit draft classes led to a super dry market during his career. It just takes one draft to fall the right way for his replacement to be on the roster.

And I hear he has 15M reasons working against him. Which, if that is accurate and we can save that much by landing a replacement, that's a well structured contract.

[13F11B]

An idea, likely based on ignorance, but here goes...

The last several years Smith relied on his partner-in-crime to bolster/cover for his quality of play, but then Ali went and retired and Smith's security blanket fell crumpled to the floor in a new pile of piss-poor play, accented by drive-killing holding penalties. Some here want to punt him to the curb (note, I also am in favor of such) and move our stud RT over to replace him. Here comes the ignorance part...One could assume the principle driver being we need someone competent to cover "the Blind Side". Mostly due to the fact that most QB's have to cover the eyes in the backs of their heads. The idea...get a left handed QB that now has a stud covering his "Blind Side", just that this is now the RT position. This would eliminate concerns about moving Wirfs to the other side, and lets him continue his great play.

Just a thought, being as we really don't have someone ANYBODY feels good about under/behind center.

To play devil's advocate...

It could be that Ali Marpet was the only person who played next to Smith that was any good. Perhaps Smith is having to compensate for bad play at left guard.

I personally agree that the issue is Smith, but it could be the guard.