Maason Smith scouting report: Exploring the LSU interior defensive lineman's strengths and weaknesses

A five-star recruit in 2021, Maason Smith flashed tremendously potential as a true freshman, with 19 tackles, five for loss and four sacks. Unfortunately he was lost to for the entire 2022 season mid-way through the first quarter of their opener against Florida State when celebrating a play that he had blown up, due a torn ACL.

This past season, you could tell that Maason Smith was still getting back into rhythm, but he did log 28 total stops, 4.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks and a couple of passes batted down.

Profile: 6-foot-5, 310 pounds; RS SO.

Breaking down Maason Smith's scouting report

Run defense:

• “Mass X acceleration” = force is on display when you look at this dude totally blow up run plays as he shoots up the field
• Plays with good pad-level and is able to own his space against singles and to a large extent also vertical combos, with insanely long 35-inch arms to keep blockers away from his chest
• Not really moving off the spot when centers are asked to down-block on him, as the offense attacks the other way
• Capable of transitioning from bench-pressing the guy across from him into swiping down the arms of another lineman trying to attach from the side in order to own his gap as he basically rupture double-teams
• Has that strong inside hand to push through the pec of blockers and not allow them to cut off his angle on the backside of lateral concepts
• If he can perfect his hand-placement, he’ll be able to dominate at a consistent level, looking at the flashes he already has on tape
• Regularly is able to track down plays going away from him, working down the line while having a hand on the blocker responsible for him
• Swallows up runners in the hole, leading to zero missed tackles on 22 total last year

Pass-rush:

• Packs that force in his hands to create the initial momentum on bull-rushes
• You see Smith’s hands re-place and find spots to attack in order to get linemen off balance and create angles for himself towards the QB
• When he can get to one shoulder of pass-protectors and rip through, he’s able to put them on his back-hip and not allow them to take him off track anyway
• Hits lunging guards and guys quick-setting him with the high swim to get by
• You’ll also see some clean wins, where Smith jabs as if he’s crossing guys up to get them leaning that way or gives a quick stutter before pulling the arm over
• Flashes a pretty fluid spin move to disengage late in the rep
• Showcases impressive lateral movement and flexibility to turn the corner as a looper off T-T and E-T twists
• Does a great job recognizing that the quarterback is initiating his release, after having worked into the depth of the pocket, and using the guy in front of him as a launch-board to cover up a large portion of the passing lane and batting down balls

Weaknesses:

• Generally plays too tall vs. the run and needs to do a better job of identifying and anchoring against angular blockers on combos, where he stays square to the man he’s lined up over and gets bumped off his space
• Attacks too far up the field when he should try to flatten down the line from the backside of zone concepts once he’s “won” the gap
• Too often is a split-second late off the snap and limits his effectiveness in the pass game
• At this point, Smith appears somewhat disjointed with his upper and lower body, making his pass rush moves fairly erratic
• Stands around and just looks over the line when he’s rushing over the center and a guard is helping out, while not turning and running right away once the ball comes out

Maason Smith's 2024 NFL Draft prospect

Maason Smith entails one of the more challenging projections for a defensive player in this draft class. This is a guy with five-star traits and incredible potential being shown as a freshman.

He lost year two with the ACL injury and then didn’t quite look like himself the past season, even though there certainly were some flashes. Whether it’s getting off the ball on time, playing low, countering blocking schemes, setting up or executing pass-rush maneuvers, they’re all areas that he needs to improve at.

And yet, he has the potential to grow in those areas, while I don’t look at him as some gifted athlete who just didn’t work hard enough, considering how we got here. I would’ve love to see him go back for his senior campaign and now hope his future team puts too high an expectation on him to contribute early based on him coming out with the knowledge of being a like second-round pick, since patience will be required with this type of player.

Right now, Maason Smith's best fit would be as a five-technique in a more traditional 3-4 front, where he can attack the chest of tackles and control solo-blocks by maintaining vision through them.

Grade: Fourth round