MOBILE, Alabama – DeVonta Smith, the winner of the Heisman Trophy, has already imagined himself in a Miami Dolphins uniform reuniting with former teammate Tua Tagovailoa, and the thought could be reciprocal.
“We just talked about how nice it would be to run it again,” Smith told NFL Network after Tuesday’s training session at the Senior Bowl about teaming up with the Dolphins starting quarterback again. “Not much, but we kind of talked about it.”
The Dolphins are No. 3 in the 2021 NFL Draft, and the team is in dire need of more explosive players for Tagovailoa. Smith, who became the first wide receiver to win the Desmond Howard Heisman Trophy in 1991 and only the second in 1940, would certainly fit that criterion.
Smith attends meetings and watches training with Dolphins coaches in the Senior Bowl, but does not participate on the field due to a dislocated finger suffered in the victory of the Alabama national championship over Ohio. He had 12 catches for 215 meters and three touchdowns in that game before the injury.
On Tuesday he was wearing a black foil on his right hand.
The biggest question about Smith’s leadership in sketching is whether his size will prevent him from becoming a top five choice. Alabama listed Smith as a 6-foot-1,175-pound and refused to weigh in at the Senior Bowl on Tuesday. He said he will wait until his Alabama business day to take full measurements.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores doesn’t seem too worried about Smith’s size affecting his assessment.
“This guy is a very, very good player. You can drop everything you want about the size of a guy, but good players are good players, they are good players. We can all see that,” Flores said Tuesday. “This guy is a very good player. He played a lot in college. He played a lot in the biggest games of the year. You can get rid of people all day. He’s a very good player and it’s been good to meet him. “And he is a good child.”
Smith played more than his size in college because he regularly found a way to break away from the press, broke open-field approaches, and proved to be enduring throughout his four-year career in Alabama.
If the Dolphins want Smith, they could have some competition. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. projects that Smith will go 2nd to the New York Jets in his first fake draft, with the Dolphins taking LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase to 3rd.
Najee Harris, Smith’s teammate from Alabama, also participates under the tutelage of the Dolphins coaches in the Senior Bowl and could also be on the team’s radar to reunite with Tagovailoa from Miami. The Dolphins have four selections in the top 50 of the NFL draft (no. 3, 18, 35 and 50).