Ainias Smith was going to come into training camp, make electrifying plays all over the field, show his speed and versatility from day one and lock up a roster spot before training camp was a couple weeks old.
Didn’t go that way.
“The first couple weeks, I really wasn't having the success that I had wanted,” Smith said Saturday, after the preseason finale vs. the Vikings. “I was just pressing, trying to do too much, trying to worry about things that I'm not able to control.
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“Those first few weeks, they were my first weeks really practicing. And once those weeks were over, started to get my feet wet a little bit, started to get my feet under me, then the games started to slow down a little bit … and now I'm just letting everything come to me.”
Smith’s first few weeks of camp were about as nightmarish as you could imagine.
He couldn’t catch anything. He couldn’t make a play when he did find the ball in his hands. In one embarrassing rep to end a practice with the entire team watching, he couldn’t beat safety Andre’ Sam in a 1-on-1 drill that’s designed to favor the receiver.
Indecision sapped him of his speed. He looked nothing like a 4.47 receiver when he ran routes. He seemed tentative. The drops began adding up. He couldn’t get separation. He looked lost.
NFL
“I came in and I had a lot of expectations on me,” he said. “Coming in, trying to be receiver three and whatnot, the spot was open. So I was going in, trying to do everything I could, but I feel like I was trying to go a little too much.”
Give the coaches credit because no matter how bad things got, they kept giving Smith opportunities to shine. And when he caught the game-winning two-point conversion from Tanner McKee against the Patriots, things began to change.
Since then, he’s looked fast and confident. He’s caught the ball well and he’s found ways to get open.
He’s looked like a different guy.
“He’s obviously very talented, but to see a guy go through that and push through it, some adversity and things like that, that’s great to see,” McKee said after the Vikings preseason game Saturday.
“That two-point conversion, it’s good to have a play like that to give him some confidence. I feel like each day he’s just gotten better and better with timing, with the feel of the routes, things like that. Coming into a new system, whether you're coming from a different system or whether you're a rookie, it’s tough. But once we got on the same page, it's been great.”
Smith caught six passes against the Vikings Saturday and they only went for 36 yards, but just seeing him catch the ball when he's had opportunities is huge. He also had a nice 14-yard punt return where he turned nothing into a positive gain.
“It's been something that I've been doing all my life,” he said. “I was just pressing earlier. I was just pressing, trying to do too much, trying to worry about other things that I'm not able to control and now I'm just letting everything come to me.”
All in all, it was an encouraging performance to cap a good bounce-back two weeks for Smith. And it came three days before final cuts on Tuesday afternoon, which isn’t bad timing.
Smith has probably done enough to make the 53-man roster, although it would have been impossible to say that two weeks ago.
The addition of Johan Dotson actually helps a guy like Smith because it decreases the need to keep an extra veteran backup like Parris Campbell around and gives Howie Roseman the luxury of keeping a young rookie 5th-round pick who’s still a project.
“Whatever the future holds, I'm really not able to say what it's going to be, but God has his hands on everything, so I'm going to go ahead and just let him take control,” he said.
“I definitely am blessed to be able to go out there and perform the way I performed. Everything that I've been doing up to this point, I'm just blessed, I'm thankful and I'm going to continue to keep raising it up.”
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