Smith-Njigba’s injury has him 'all over the map'
Mike Florio believes Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s window to be drafted is between picks No. 12-22, which leads Chris Simms to question how injury concern could makes teams hesitant in the first round.
Video Transcript
- Let's talk receivers.
- Yeah.
- You have Zay Flowers as your number one guy. He was with us yesterday. We both really like him. Jackson Smith-Njigba of Iowa State is the favorite to be the first one drafted at -350. Zay Flowers at +450. Then, it falls off to Quentin Johnston, Jordan Addison, and Jalen Hyatt.
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- This is another one.
- Which one do you think is going first?
- I mean, I want to say just because of the strong numbers of Jackson Smith-Njigba, and how he's been linked to some teams so aggressively through this process, that there must be two or three teams that really like him, right? But here's another prospect that, again Mike, I'll throw this to. If I paint the picture of, hey, a guy that's really good after the catch and makes a ton of plays, but he's not going to run by you for a 60-yard bomb. None of that's happening, right?
He doesn't-- he's not really going to separate a whole lot on the outside. He's truly a slot receiver, and he ran 4.50 at his Pro Day. That's kind of like a 4.60 at the Combine. And he didn't play last year because he couldn't run because his hamstring was hurt. Does that, to me, sound like a guy that's the first receiver off the board?
I mean, again, that's another guy that I kind of see that's all over the map when I talk to friends in the NFL. It's all over the place. There's some that go he's a top 15 pick, and there's others that go, well, he's the top of the second round for us. And he's another one where I have no clue where it ends up being, Mike. But what do you think?
- 12 to 22 is his range. Book it. Hold me accountable for it tomorrow. 12 to 22 is his range. That means the Ravens at 22 will take him if he's there. The Texans could take him at 12, or he could land anywhere in between.
- There's a lot of people that think there.
- Chris, I'm with you.
- Yeah.
- I'm not taking a receiver in round one who isn't a number one receiver. I'm not taking the number two receiver in round one.
- Right.
- I can get a number two receiver later, and the picture you're painting is Jackson Smith-Njigba is a number two receiver on my team. He's not-- remember when JuJu Smith-Schuster tried to be the number one in Pittsburgh post Antonio Brown? It didn't work out because if you can't separate, you aren't going to draw double coverage, nobody's going to shade a safety your way, and you're not a number one receiver.
- Right.
- Period. You can be very good.
- Right.
- But not number one. I'll take you in a later round.