The Washington Football Team has plenty of money to spend in free agency this year and need to upgrade several spots on offense. The tight end position is one that is often overlooked thanks to Logan Thomas’ breakout campaign in 2020, but Washington has little depth behind him and Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner enjoyed using multiple tight end sets in Carolina. The top tight end on the market is Hunter Henry, and Washington could well make a play for him, but perhaps the team is concerned about his injury history and wants to look elsewhere. The next free agent tight end I’d seriously consider if I were Washington would be Jonnu Smith.
Looking at Smith’s stats, they aren’t overly impressive, but he played in an offense in Tennessee that was built around Derrick Henry and the run game. He was often the second tight end and asked to do a lot of blocking, which doesn’t necessarily suit his skillset. In that regard, Smith offers some untapped potential as a free agent, which is risky because it means more projection than already having knowledge of what a successful role in the NFL looks like for Smith. However, Washington took a similar risk last year on Logan Thomas, albeit at a much cheaper rate than what Smith will likely cost, and that paid off.
Skillset
So if we’re projecting with Smith, we need to look at his skillset and how that could potentially fit in Washington better than it did in Tennessee. The 6-foot-3, 248 pound tight end is a terrific athlete with good speed for the position. That means he can be a threat in the seams, where Washington struggled to attack consistently last season.
Here we see the Titans operate out of an empty set with the running back stacked behind Smith in the slot to the right. The Lions’ defense shows just a single deep safety, which suggests either Cover-1 or Cover-3. Against both coverages, offenses love to attack the seams and that’s what Smith does here. He runs straight up the seam, allowing the back a free release from the stacked set into his route underneath. The Lions drop into Cover-3 and Smith works into the space behind the linebackers and between the outside cornerback and safety in the middle. Both defenders recognize the threat and look to close on him, but the quarterback adjusts for that, deliberately placing the ball high and on Smith, allowing him to adjust his body in the air to make the grab above the defenders.
That clip shows the athleticism to work in the seam along with the toughness to withstand the hits that come with working in that area. But we also saw great ball skills, with the ability to track the ball, adjust his body in the air and go up to make the catch above the defenders. That’s another big asset Smith offers. He routinely showed good ball skills to make catches in contested spots. That is a valuable asset all over the field, but particularly in the red zone.
On this play, Smith aligns as the inside receiver in a bunch set to the right. He releases outside to create space and leverage for a post route. However, the quarterback opts against throwing the post in the initial window, leaving Smith to try and work off-script to make himself available. He breaks back outside, surprising the defender and buying himself a yard of space. The quarterback pulls the trigger and deliberately throws the ball high again to prevent the defender from making a play on it. That challenges Smith’s ball skills but like on the previous play, he does a great job adjusting his body and going up to make the catch for a touchdown.
Smith’s ball skills are an obvious asset, as is his athleticism. The Titans did a nice job finding ways to get him the ball in space, using more tight end screens than many teams in the league typically do. Smith has the athletic ability to take advantage of that space created on screens.
Here, Smith works out to the flat behind two receivers that block for him. The ball comes out quickly, meaning Smith has plenty of space in the flat before the linebacker in coverage can make up ground and get over to him. Smith secures the pass and turns up the field with his two receivers making strong blocks in front of him. He shows great burst down the sideline as he beats the pursuing linebacker to the first down marker while also having the strength to ride through the tackle attempt from the safety. He’s eventually brought down, but picked up a first down in the process.
While Smith is a good athlete, he’s still raw as a technical player. His route running isn’t particularly sharp or effective, meaning if he doesn’t run by the defender in coverage with his speed, he won’t necessarily separate with his route running.
On this play against the Ravens, Smith runs what appears to be a crossing over the middle. He initially releases inside, which is fine but he probably drifts too far inside for this type of route. He then attempts to do the right thing by selling a fake to get vertical before breaking across the middle. However, the fake vertical isn’t anywhere near strong enough and at no point does the defender look remotely concerned about having to turn and run with Smith. He stays on top of the route the whole way and never adjusts to any potential vertical route because he doesn’t believe it’s coming. As Smith breaks over the middle, he drifts up the field, rather than holding a sharp break. This allows the defender in coverage to sit on his back hip and be in a perfect position to undercut the route. He would have done so had another defender not sunk back into the throwing window and intercepted the pass.
Smith wasn’t at fault for that interception, it was a poor throw, but the route was the point of the clip. It wasn’t good and lacked the technical qualities that a more refined route runner like Hunter Henry offers. That type of thing, however, is something that can be worked on and developed by good coaching, but again it leads to projecting potential development, which can be risky in free agency.
Fit in Washington
Having looked at Smith’s skillset, the athleticism is obvious, as are the ball skills. The route running needs work, but he’s someone that can do damage in space and has the speed to threaten vertically in the seams. That first play we looked at, with Smith making a good catch in the seam, is something I think Washington would love to replicate. Scott Turner called a lot of vertical concepts last year, but didn’t always have the right personnel or quarterback to execute them as often as he’d like. Adding a tight end like Smith with the speed to threaten in the seams as well as the toughness and ball skills to make touch catches in contested areas would be very appealing to Turner. But the fit can be far more than just that.
Turner’s offense often asks the tight ends to help out in pass protection with chips before working into checkdown routes underneath. Smith is plenty familiar with that type of role and there is little projection needed on how he could perform that type of assignment.
Here, Smith is tasked with chipping the defensive end before spotting up underneath as a checkdown outlet for the quarterback. The defense sends the edge rusher up the field, and Smith chips him before releasing, but they also bring the slot corner. Smith gets a second chip off on the blitzing corner, delaying the rush of two defenders before releasing into his route. He spots up underneath and with the defense sending an extra blitzer, he has lots of space to work with. The quarterback quickly works to Smith as his checkdown and allows him time to secure the ball before defenders can close on him. Smith shows off that athletic ability again, bursting to the sideline and gradually angling his path up the field as he runs away from the coverage defender and picks up a first down.
The other part of Smith’s game that would fit in Washington naturally is his versatility. We saw in Turner’s first year in Washington how much he liked to shift and motion pre-snap, moving players all over the field to try and generate the best matchups possible. Turner can ask a player like Smith to align as a typical inline tight end on one play, then in the backfield on the next, followed by motioning outside the numbers. Fortunately, Smith is used to this type of versatility, having aligned in various spots for the Titans.
This play starts with Smith aligning as a fullback in the backfield. The quarterback then makes a signal and four of the five eligible receivers shift to new positions, including Smith who moves from his original fullback spot to outside the numbers to the left. From that spot, Smith runs a slant route, breaking open underneath the slot fade inside and making the catch on his way to a touchdown.
That type of versatility will be hugely appealing to Turner, who loves to work with different personnel groups and move players all over the field. We saw on that play how the defense has to try and sort out which player has motioned to which spot and who should cover each guy. Smith was the last player to be accounted for and ended up with a touchdown. That’s something that would fit in perfectly with Washington. But it’s not the only creative way Smith was used in Tennessee. The Titans used Smith’s athleticism to their advantage with some gadget-style plays, like the occasional jet sweep or tight end hand-off plays. They even used him on a fake jet sweep that turned into a wheel route.
Here, the Titans work out of 13 personnel, which consists of one running back, three tight ends and one receiver. Smith is the third tight end and aligns in the slot to the left. He runs a jet sweep fake that he continues into the flat and up the sideline as it converts into a wheel route. The Vikings’ defense don’t anticipate the jet sweep fake from a tight end and certainly don’t expect him to convert that into a wheel route. He’s left wide open running down the sideline, but the throw is just out of his reach and he can’t quite manage to bring it in.
We saw last year how Turner got creative with Logan Thomas at tight end, adding Smith to the mix would give him more opportunities to be creative and put defenses in a bind with regards to what personnel they use to defend against two tight end sets.
Overall, there is some projection involved in adding Jonnu Smith. He wasn’t necessarily used to his full potential with the Titans and could be a better fit in Washington with the way Turner likes to be creative, move players around and mix and match personnel to create matchup issues for the defense. His versatility plays well into that and his skillset with raw athleticism and good ball skills certainly suggests he can handle a bigger role than what he had with the Titans.
However, Washington would need to be clear on the role they have set for him and not expect him to suddenly do things he hasn’t done before. He doesn’t have the route running ability of a guy like Hunter Henry, so he won’t create separation over the middle from tight man coverage. He needs to be able to work more vertically, where he can take advantage of his speed, and will need a quarterback that will trust him to make tough contested catches in tight windows. But there is certainly a good potential fit in Washington if they were to pursue him in free agency.