At Senior Bowl, Devin Smith, Curtis Grant, Doran Grant Have Tried to Bolster NFL Aspirations

By Patrick Maks on January 24, 2015 at 7:15 am
Devin Smith torched Wisconsin's secondary in the Big Ten title game.
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With a Big Ten title, Sugar Bowl victory and National Championship in tow, Ohio State’s senior class will leave school as decorated as any group of players in the last decade. For many of them, the logical next step is the NFL.

As such, wide receiver Devin Smith, cornerback Doran Grant and linebacker Curtis Grant have spent the better part of the last week trying to bolster their aspirations of playing professional football. After beating the Oregon Ducks almost two weeks ago, the three got off a plane from Dallas back to Columbus before boarding another one to Mobile, Al., where the Reese's Senior Bowl is held (note: Michael Bennett and Jeff Heuerman, who originally accepted bids to participate, dropped out not long after the Buckeyes announced their national title celebration for the same day last week).  

And while the game on Saturday afternoon is the final and grand spectacle of the event, prospective NFL organizations will largely evaluate Smith and both Grants through a much larger lens that started rolling days ago.

Devin Smith

  • Measurables: 6-foot, 190 pounds
  • Senior Season Statistics: 931 yards and 12 touchdowns on 33 catches
  • What They're Saying: 
  • Biggest Things to Prove: After being known as a streaky player for most of his Ohio State career, Smith went bonkers in the Buckeyes’ postseason run.  

With Cardale Jones, the strong-armed backup quarterback at the helm, Smith was almost unstoppable when it came to catching the deep ball. That’s no hyperbole, either. In games against Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, he caught six passes that were at least 39 yards. In that span, he amassed 269 yards and four touchdowns on seven catches. If you do the math, that’s an average of 38 yards a catch.  And during the regular season, Smith was almost equally explosive, averaging 30 yards a grab. And when those catches were for touchdowns, the Buckeyes are 22-0.

Yet reporters in Mobil reported Smith struggled in drills and lacked the skillset of a complete wide receiver.

Even so, Smith has drawn the interest of the Baltimore Ravens, according to the Baltimore Sun. He met with the organization recently.

"It went really well,” Smith told the Sun. "They showed a lot of interest. They liked the things I did on the football field."

Smith told the newspaper he thinks he’s proved that he can be more than just a deep-ball receiver, too. “I think I’ve shown I can compete with the best receivers and showing I can run all the routes,” he said. “I think that’s very imperative for me to show that I can run all the other routes and that I can block and do all the necessary things that a wide receiver has to do."

And that, of course, has been the biggest knock on Smith. He's looked at as a one-trick pony and overcoming that stigma remains a challenge.

Curtis Grant

  • Measurables: 6-foot-3, 240 pounds
  • Senior Season Statistics: 69 tackles, five tackles-for-loss, one sack
  • What They're Saying: 

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  • Biggest Things to Prove: When Curtis Grant came to Ohio State, he was a five-star, can’t-miss prospect expected to be the Buckeyes’ next great linebacker. Instead, Grant spent his first two seasons mostly on the sideline and struggled considerably his junior year when Ohio State’s defense unraveled in a postseason collapse. While Grant, a captain, played a large role in the team’s team’s defensive turnaround this season, he also appears to be a beneficiary of that success. As such, questions remain over whether Grant turned a corner or if he’s merely the product of something else. With his imposing frame, Grant looks like an NFL linebacker. But his speed and ability to move around the field like one remains a concern.

Doran Grant

  • Measurables: 5-foot-11, 193 pounds
  • Senior Season Statistics: 63 tackles, five interceptions, nine pass-breakups  
  • What They're Saying: 
  • Biggest thing to prove: Talk to Doran Grant for five minutes and it'll become pretty clear that the guy's an extremely intense individual. It's also no wonder why this is the guy who helped Ohio State's abysmal pass defense go from one of the nation's worst to one of the nation's best in a matter of 12 months. After chipping a bone in his hand, Grant won't play Saturday. 

Fortunately for him, it appears the Akron, Ohio, native already made a considerable impression on reporters and scouts in attendance. After all, Grant was one of the fastest players on Ohio State's roster (remember when he won the fastest-student competition in the spring?) and strength Mick Marotti chiseled his body like a well-crafted statute. 

This season, Grant was charged with shutting down top wide receivers like Alabama's Amari Cooper, Michigan State's Tony Lippett and Cincinnati's Mekale McKay. In every one of those contests, Grant (with the help of an improved secondary, of course), flustered Cooper, Lippett and McKay and rendered them ineffective in wins for the Buckeyes. 

Where Grant might still be unproven, however, is the kind of flashy, big-play ability that made his predecessor Bradley Roby such a coveted talent in last year's NFL Draft. While Grant had five interceptions, he wasn't the dynamic playmaker that Roby was in his final two seasons at Ohio State. But really, that's nitpicking at a guy who appears to have a lot of momentum in his favor. 

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