Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Smith ready to shine when it matters
PHILADELPHIA » Torrey Smith was amused, all these years later, that the familiar question keeps raging. He was even more amused that the answer remains the same, too.
The issue, in whatever form, is simple. Smith doesn’t often catch footballs during preseason games. He’s had two such games with the Eagles and has yet to wiggle so open, for so long, in so many spots to make a single reception. So? “I haven’t had a catch in three preseasons,” Smith said, more as a point of information than of conflict. “I’m not worried about it.” Three? “Well, it’s definitely two,” he said. “I know that because (Bryce) Treggs keeps reminding me of that, because we were together last year.”
Smith and Treggs were with the 49ers, who would go 2-14 and have their coach, one Chip Kelly. fired. So maybe there is not a value in lost preseasons.
But Smith is 28, has been a Super Bowl champion with the 2012 Ravens, has 37 career NFL touchdowns and is more than comfortable with his lifetime preseason statistics.
“I am not going to lie to you, this is my seventh preseason,” he said. “I might have had 10 receptions in the preseason. It’s definitely less than 15. I have two touchdowns. They don’t count. So it doesn’t bother me.”
To this point, halfway through the preseason, Smith’s .000 batting average is as easily dismissed as explained. Projected starters barely play in the exhibition-game money-grabs. When they do, game plans, if that’s what they can be called, are at best rudimentary. And even if he’d gone for 100 yards against Green Bay and two touchdowns against Buffalo, that, too, would have been discharged as insignificant, given the stakes.
Yet … yet … yet Thursday begins Week 3 of the preseason, and that typically is the signal for coaches to trust their veterans, perhaps even until after the halftime show. Week 4 is a glorified Canadian League scouting combine. But Week 3 is as close to mattering as the NFL preseason will come.
More, for the Eagles, it will trend toward important, given that second-year quarterback Carson Wentz is still trying to build a comfort level with Smith, Alshon Jeffery and LeGarrette Blount — three key, veteran pieces added in the offseason.
Or has that been achieved already, in the practices, the minicamps, the film room and the situations like the one the Birds were in Monday? That’s when they held a joint practice with the Miami Dolphins prior to their Thursday game, and when Smith’s long TD pass from Wentz drew the most cheers from the assembled sideline invitees.
“I really think their chemistry is good,” offensive coordinator Frank Reich said. “Torrey is a pro. He works very hard. I think they have gotten a lot of reps together, all through OTAs and training camp. So I am not concerned about the production in a preseason game where he really hasn’t played that much. So I feel very good about that.”
Reich is paid too much money to have said much else. But he did agree that Smith, as a deep threat, will likely take more time to develop a connection with Wentz than any short-pass options.
“There is no doubt, you have to throw deep balls,” he said. “You don’t just say, ‘OK, he’s a fast guy, just throw it deep.’ There is a chemistry and a timing and a feel for that. But I
think they’ve gotten a lot of that in OTAs and training camp. That’s not necessarily live, but still that’s the kind of throw where you can build chemistry.
“It doesn’t always have to be live. You can still get a good feel for each other.”
The Eagles didn’t sign Smith for nice money without believing that, when it counts, he will be open in the end zone, arms waving. That might not happen. But that’s their belief, one that is not going to be rattled by two empty August boxscore lines.
“When you are younger and you have a bad practice or something, it’s like the end of the world,” Smith said. “Now that you’re older, you know it’s just part of camp. There’s highs and lows. That’s how the season goes as well. And now you just try to prepare for it and go out and try to be the best you can be each and every day and help the young guys get along.”
He was excellent Monday, when the competition grew to an essential controlled scrimmage. Week 3 looms. The opener is Sept. 10 in Washington. Smith believes he’ll be there when it is necessary.
“We’re there all the time,” he said. “To me.”
That would be all the time, except for preseason games. Not that he doesn’t have the answer for that, an answer he knows too well.