ANTHONY SMITH RELATED PRESS CONFERENCES

 

Anthony Smith
Free Safety − Syracuse
3rd Round – 83rd Overall

You had a good game at Heinz Field, are you looking forward more of those?

I'm looking forward to plenty of great games at Heinz Field.

What do you think about playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers?

It's going to be an honor to play for the defending champs. I'm just going to come in here and do what I can to help the team out and hopefully won another championship.

What do you bring to the table?

I'm physical. I'm a smart player. I can play in the box and in the middle of the field. I'm always around the ball. So I think that is what I bring to the table.

Do you take pride in the special teams?

Yes, that is one of my things that I take a lot of pride in is special teams. I might have to do that for a couple of years but whatever I have to do to get on the field.

What was your visit like here?

Yes, I had a real good time up there. I had a good meeting with all the coaches and everything went fine. I had a good lunch there and I had interviews there and everything worked out.

Do you feel like you are coming home since you grew up only about 75 miles from Pittsburgh?

Basically I'm right up the street so I'm right at home.

Are you aware of the Steelers situation at safety?

I think that it gives me a chance to compete for the starting job and I was told that when I was in Miami. So I'm just going to come in and do my best and we'll see what happens.

What happened at Syracuse this season?

We just couldn't get things rolling and our offense struggled a lot but our defense did what we could. We played hard every down and every quarter. Things just didn't go our way. We lost a lot of close games and that is basically what happened.

Do you have to gain weight to play in the NFL?

I don't think I do but I probably will. As long as I don't slow down which is all I'm worried about.

What is your speed?

I'm a fast football player.

Do you have a knack for special teams?

I have been playing special teams ever since I was a freshman and that was the only way I was on the field so that is were I made my mark so I take a lot of pride in special teams.

Were you surprised that the Steelers had you rated 4th among all the safeties in this draft?

I don't know. I think I'm good safety. I got taken where I got taken but we'll see in a couple of years what happened.

 

 

Darren Perry
RE: Anthony Smith, Syracuse
Draft Pick Position
3rd Round – 83rd Overall

What do you think about the pick?

Darren Perry: Anthony Smith is a play maker from Syracuse with great ball skills, excellent tacklers and is very smart. He was one of the players that we brought in for a visit a couple days ago.

What kind of safety is he?

He's a complete safety. He can do it all. He can tackle. He can make plays on the ball. He's a guy that He's a guy that you feel very comfortable with. He's an aggressive with the ball; he'll go up and high point it and when someone gets some space he can get them on the ground. That's what we look for on this defense, athletic safeties that can run and make plays on the ball. I think he'll be a good complement to Troy [Polamalu].

Did you trade down because you thought he'd still be here?

We thought that was probably going to happen, if we went down a little bit he might still be there and that was some of the thought process. We kind of had our fingers crossed that he was still there when we picked.

Did you have him rated above Darnell Bing and Ko Simpson?

Yeah, on our board we did. He was the next safety that was going to go. We liked him from day one.

Does he have special teams abilities?

Yeah. He's a guy, as a rookie because of his smarts and athletic ability, if he doesn't crack the starting lineup he'll be a guy that contribute and help out [on special teams] and that was one of the things that was intriguing about the pick.

Is he a free safety or strong safety?

He's more of a free safety but he can play both. He's aggressive enough that if you have him down in the box, he'll show up. He's an aggressive tackler. We're trying to find a guy that can complement Troy and we'll have to wait and see how things play out. But he's a guy that can do both.

Did his combine test hold him back from going higher?

I think so. People got a little scared of him at Indianapolis because his 40-yard dash time was a little slow compared to some of the other safeties. Sometimes you have to look beyond that because he did much better at his individual work out at Syracuse. Not to make excuses for the kid but he kind of stumbled a little bit coming out. The one thing we do as coaches is that we don't put a lot of stock into some of those numbers out there. We look at football players and this guy's a football player. He plays much faster than his 40 time would indicate. That won't be an issue.

Does he remind you of anyone?

I wish I had this guy's athletic ability but he's a lot like Chris Hope. Chris did an excellent job for us the last couple of years. I hated to lose him but Ryan [Clark] is going to come in and help us out, and we have a young player that we feel in a few years will be a good player for us.

How important is tackling for a safety?

Very important and we stressed to Chris Hope all last year and the year before that you're not going to be a guy that makes as many plays as Troy but when things get out the gate you're the guy that has to make sure you get him on the ground. Sometimes it's not going to be pretty but you have to give us a chance to line up and play the next snap.

Are you trying to complement the way that Troy plays?

We like to keep Troy up at the line of scrimmage. Troy is a guy that is versatile enough that he can play at half field but he is more comfortable being at the line of scrimmage. Getting a guy to complement Troy is only going to make our defense better.

Where was he rated among the safeties?

Anthony Smith was our fourth-rated safety coming off the board. There were some good players there with [Michael] Huff, [Jason] Allen and [Donte] Whitner. We knew they weren't going to be there when we pick but we thought that late second [round] or early third that [Smith] would be there for us and we were lucky enough to get him.

Will you continue to use the free safety a lot in packages?

Anthony back in college did a lot of covering for [Syracuse] over the slot. We like his versatility. He gives us a number of options when we go to our sub-package because he's a guy that can play over wide receivers like Troy. Again, if we want to bring in Tyrone [Carter] or Mike Logan, we have some options there. Anthony Smith, because of his coverage ability, gives us another option there.

Did you have to take a safety to add depth for the position?

We wanted to get some depth there. We feel very good about getting Ryan Clark. Tyrone Carter came on and played good for us towards the end of the season. He progressed last year. We were looking at it from a depth standpoint but we were looking for the future too.

Did your board order go Huff, Allen, Whitner, and then Smith?

Huff, Allen and Whitner was the order that we had them in. Then there was a little bit of a drop off. We felt that we had a good shot of getting this guy in the late second. We thought he may be there when we picked at the end of the third but we weren't sure.

Where you nervous when you traded down that he wouldn't be there?

A little bit. There were other options out there as well. I think this was a deep draft at the safety position and if we didn't get Anthony there were still some other options that we could have explored.

Have you talked to any University of Pittsburgh coaches about Smith?

No I did not. I watched a lot of video on this kid. The more you watched him, the more you were impressed with him. He's a complete player. We brought him in. I spent some time with him on the board, he's very sharp. I don't think he'll have a problem coming in and learning our system at all because that's another area that we take very seriously, guys being able to come in and pick up our system because it's complicated and it does take guys some time to learn it and he was pretty sharp from day one when we sat down and talked about it.

Did he get lost playing on a bad college team?

Absolutely because you get a lot of college kids coming out that are exposed to some of the exotic coverages and formations that he'll see at this level. You'll get a guy who's talented but you can't get him on the field because he can't quite put it all together. He may [run a] 4.4 but when he gets on the field he plays more like a 4.7 guy because he's thinking and not reacting.

Was he underrated because he played at Syracuse?

One of things I said in our draft meeting about Anthony Smith is that this guy is a good football player on a bad team and he stood out because of the way he played and carried himself. In a lot of ball games they were down and this guy played from start to finish. He's a tough guy that we look for. Guys that will give you everything they have play in and play out.

Did you talk to [Syracuse coach] Greg Robinson?

No I didn't have to. This guy's video speaks for itself. If you know anything about football and put the video on, you see a good football player.

What's it like as a coach when your team makes so many trades?

Not at all. We have the mock draft and we talk about a lot of different scenarios. That prepares us. One thing this coaching staff does a great job of is being unselfish. Obviously you'd like to get as many players at your respective position that you can but we're trying to do things in the best interest of the football team. [Santonio] Holmes was a guy that we liked and I had my fingers crossed, hoping that he'd be there for us. That's going to be good for the Steelers.

Are you satisfied with your depth at DB now?

Corner I am but anytime you get a rookie player coming in there are some unknowns and some uncertainties. You just hope that the guy develops into the type of player that you hope he can be. We still have Troy. Tyrone and Clark will be battling for that starting spot. You hope that Anthony can come in and compete and contribute early on.

Has Clark been in for the work outs?

Ryan came in last week and those guys have been watching video, trying to get a head start. He's been sitting with Tyrone, Bryant McFadden and Ricardo [Colclough]. A lot our young guys are starting to understand what it's going to take to be successful and they understand the opportunities that they have ahead of them. With the competition that we have is only going to make us better. That's only good news for us.

What's your impression of Clark?

I knew Ryan when he was coming out of LSU. I was hoping to get him in Cincinnati my first year of coaching. He signed a free agent contract with the Giants. I was hoping that we could get him as a free agent in Cincinnati but we didn't. Guys like that you keep your eye on in the hope that maybe something will happen down the line. He's smart. He's probably not as athletic as some teams look for in that position but Ryan is a quality football player. He's proven that. He's always had to fight to get to where he is. He understands that and he's going to help us out a lot.

Can Smith play special teams?

Big time. He's blocked punts. If he doesn't become a starter in his first year, which is going to be tough to do because he's got some competition there, but he's a guy that can come in and contribute and help us out in a lot of other areas.