August 30, 2019

Landry: Argos’ Smith showing promise as breakout star

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

Rodney Smith is the kind of guy that naturally stands out in a receiving corps even when the group is doing nothing more than just milling about on a practice field.

When you check-in at 6-foot-5 and 235 lbs, that’s gonna happen, and not just because you might be standing next to 5-foot-9 Jimmy Ralph.

When Smith does things on a football field – like the things he did during a breakout performance last week against the Montreal Alouettes – he stands out in a different way. The way he and the Toronto Argonauts would like him to stand out on a regular basis from now on.

Smith might well be ready to enter household name territory as he and the Argonauts get set to take on the Tiger-Cats in a Mark’s Labour Day Weekend tilt on Monday in Hamilton.

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If his name does become a familiar one atop the CFL receivers charts, it will be a number of things that have brought Smith to that spot; the physicality with which he’s been blessed, the familiar connection he feels with an old chum and the tutoring of one of the best receivers ever to set foot on a CFL field. A receiver who told Smith, among other things, not to be so darned fast.

All that, as well as just plain, old familiarity with the Canadian game.

We’ve heard it said often over the years. When a player starts to understand the nuances of CFL football, when he really, really get comfortable, the frenzied code of bodies and patterns around him becomes much easier to decrypt.

“It’s slowed down for me,” said Smith. “I’ve got a better understanding of how the game’s played out there.”

In his second season with the Argos, the Miami native feels like he’s ready to assume a bigger role with the Boatmen, and his twelve catch performance for 136 yards against the Als last week signalled a couple of things: One, he’s ready for that role in the offence and two, that the team certainly feels the same way.

“I’m glad that he’s stepping into that role and growing in that role,” said Argos Head Coach Corey Chamblin. “I had a conversation with him down in Florida (at mini-camp), about taking the next step in his career. And I think you can see it.”

Among Smith’s 12 receptions last Sunday, was a splendid, deep over-the-middle, contested catch just outside the Montreal goal line in the dying seconds. It was a clutch nab that set the Argos up for a chance to win on the final play, although the Alouettes would ultimately hang on to secure a 28-22 victory.

The week previous, Smith used every inch of his impressive arm span, his long, liquid strides, and his ability to leap to pull off a highlight-reel catch against the Edmonton Eskimos. The week before that, he caught six passes for 50 yards and a touchdown in Toronto’s stunning 28-27 win over Winnipeg.

“He’s becoming a guy that can do it all,” said Toronto quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, heaping praise on his 29-year-old teammate who, like Bethel-Thompson, has been through a number of cities and a number of trials and tribulations over the course of his career.

“He’s a quieter guy than the so-called stars, but he just brings energy,” said Bethel-Thompson.

“He brings a work ethic, and great hands, and a big body and a willingness to block. And to run the flat routes, run the clear routes, run the main routes. And he’s just bringing a standard that is bringing everyone’s game up.”

A wide receiver his entire football life, Smith has had to get used to playing inside at the slot position for the Argos and now that the tumblers have clicked for him, he’s enjoying it. It’s a transition that has been made to go more smoothly because of the wisdom of a teammate who has made the slot his personal kingdom over the years, after first struggling to find a permanent spot on a CFL roster.

Who better to teach the position than S.J. Green?

“It was kind of a difficult transition, coming from the NFL to the CFL,” said Smith, who saw game action nine times during his first season, catching 23 passes for 257 yards.

“S.J. would always preach to just keep workin’ at it,” Smith continued. “That it doesn’t happen overnight for nobody.”

Beyond an insistence that Smith keep grinding, Green offered some technical route-running advice that has led Smith to tinker, successfully, with the way he completes his patterns.

“One thing he told me was that you don’t always have to play at a hundred miles an hour,” said Smith, who’d been used to doing everything in top gear. “You can kinda play in space. You don’t have to rush a lot of stuff that goes on here.”

“You can change your speed up here a lot, Smith explained. “You can play with your motion and work different routes.”

It’s working and the teacher is pleased.

“S.J.’s been telling me that he can tell that the game is slowing down for me,” said Smith, who also named Armanti Edwards as a fellow receiver who’s been impactful in his emergence. “I just try to keep working at it every week.”

Toronto Argonauts receiver Rodney Smith runs to the sidelines against the Montreal Alouettes (Shannon Vizniowski/CFL.ca)

One thing that Smith didn’t seem to have to work on much was his relationship with Bethel-Thompson. While the two of them walked separate pro paths between 2014 and 2017 — Smith spent time in Cleveland, Dallas, and Seattle before joining the Argos while Bethel-Thompson had stops in San Francisco, New England, Miami, Philadelphia and Winnipeg — they spent time together as Minnesota Vikings in 2013.

To hear Bethel-Thompson tell it, the two of them made beautiful music back then.

“We were a formidable force on scout team,” the quarterback said with a broad smile. “Scout team, you can just make stuff up,” he continued. “So me and him were just having a good time. And we did do some damage for sure.

“We tore up their first-team D pretty good when we were there, me and him.”

And they connected in pre-season, in a game in Buffalo, with Smith hauling in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Bethel-Thompson.

“It’s a trust that we have,” said Smith of his history with his quarterback. “We just try to build on that every week.”

That building process culminated in last week’s explosion, pushing Smith’s stats past his modest totals of 2018 in basically half the number of games.

He worked hard in that loss to the Alouettes. For a while there it seemed he was the only receiver on the field wearing double blue. But when you’ve been struggling to find your footing, to find the moment where you can finally exclaim “ta-da!” to the rest of the league, you don’t worry about getting tired out.

“As a receiver, you better not ever have that thought in your head,” laughed Smith. “But you definitely get a little winded sometimes. But that’s what we practice for. We get used to that stuff.”

Speaking of that, the Argonauts could certainly get used to the receiver that has popped for them during the last three games and as good as it’s gotten, there is optimism from both receiver and coach, that there is much more ahead.

“I’m excited about where he is in his career,” said Chamblin, before offering a tantalizing taste of what, the Argos hope, might come. “And he’s nowhere close to who he can be.”