Ex-vols standout could fill big hole at left guard

Tennessee’s Trey Smith is one of the better offensive guards in the nation.

But there is the medical matter of having blood clots in his lungs that NFL teams are looking into before the NFL draft, which is April 29 through May 1 in Cleveland.

Smith, rated as the third-best interior lineman in the draft by Nfl.com analyst Bucky Brooks, missed five games of the 2018 season after a diagnosis of blood clots in his lungs. He returned to play most of 2019 while following a special medical plan, which allowed for only two full-contact practices.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Smith started all 10 games at left guard and was named a second-team All-american and firstteam ALL-SEC guard.

“I don’t have any concerns,” Smith said Wednesday. “Teams that will do their due diligence will understand what I have is a prior condition. Not only that, the plan that we sustained this past season not only saw that we can do it in the NFL, but that I’ll have immediate success.”

Smith, 6 feet 6 and 330 pounds, played mostly left guard for the Volunteers. The Falcons have released two of the three players who started at left guard last season. James Carpenter was the preferred starter. Carpenter’s replacement was Justin Mccray and he was not re-signed. The Falcons tried to spot-play Matt Hennessy at left guard last season as a rookie and even used tackle Matt Gono at left guard against Kansas City.

Hennessy likely will take over for center Alex Mack, leaving an open competition at left guard.

Smith of Jackson, Tennessee, was ranked as one of the top 10 players in the nation coming out of high school. He was second-team ALL-SEC, a freshman All-american and SEC all-freshman in his first season. He started 12 games (eight at right guard, four at left tackle). He has been a dominating blocker at times over his career. He played 664 snaps and gave up only one sack last season.

As for the blood clots, for NFL teams willing to possibly spend millions of dollars, Smith now is an open book. Smith would have been checked out by NFL doctors at the scouting combine. He doesn’t mind explaining his plight on video calls with teams — “just telling people what my situation is, how we solved the issue and what it is going forward,” Smith said. “I have no problems with explaining it. I can explain it a million times if I have to. It’s something unique.”

Smith is projected to go late in the first round or early in the second round. In addition to the No. 4 overall pick, the Falcons hold the 35th pick, which is the third pick of the second round.