He started out in Fort Worth peewee football. Now Tyler Smith is an NFL draft prospect
In February 2019, things were relatively quiet for North Crowley offensive tackle Tyler Smith.
He was ranked as a two-star prospect by Rivals. One service had him as the 335th-ranked recruit in Texas in 2019.
His interest list included the likes of Houston, Navy, New Mexico and Prairie View A&M.
And he initially committed to Abilene Christian before trading up to Tulsa when they gave him a late offer.
It’s certainly not the stuff of legends or the journey of potential top 30 NFL Draft prospects.
But it is the story of Smith, whose humble beginnings in 2019 belie the attention he is getting now as one of the biggest rising prospects for the 2022 NFL Draft.
If only his friends could see him now.
Massive. Nasty. Mean. Mauler. Big upside.
Those are just a few of words now describing Smith, as in three years he has gone from a relative recruiting nobody to a hot commodity in the pre-draft visit list.
The 6-foot-5, 324-pound lineman has taken trips to Denver, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Houston, Miami and Tennessee. He visited the Buffalo Bills on Monday.
What about the nearby Dallas Cowboys?
His invite list was too packed to attend their workout for local prospects but the Cowboys were at his Pro Day at Tulsa and attended a private workout.
“It’s a blessing,” Smith said of the rise from his hotel room in Buffalo. “There is no real feeling to describe it. I was under-recruited for sure. I think people didn’t see me or didn’t believe me. But it was a lot of hard work. My coaches helped hone my game. It’s a lifetime opportunity.”
Smith, raised by his mother Patricia Smith, began his journey in the peewee leagues in Fort Worth was always a great athlete and a big boy.
He even made third-team all-state as a junior at North Crowley.
But that is where the confusion in his recruitment began, according for Mesquite Horn coach Courtney Allen, who coached Smith at North Crowley.
“He had a surgery on his leg going into his senior year,” Allen said. “One of his legs was bowed out and he had corrective surgery to straighten it out. It scared them away. Had he not had surgery, he would have been a Power 5 guy. I was trying to tell people about the kid. Some didn’t listen.”
What the NFL scouts are raving about now, Allen saw in Smith when he was in high school.
Smith started out as a defensive lineman before moving to tackle as a junior but he carried that aggressive mentality with him.
“He was a dog, very mean,” Allen said. “He played hard. He was a mauler. I show kids tape now. This is how it is supposed to be done. He was mean between the lines. But he is a good kid. Good student. Not a flashy kid. He cares about his mom and brother.”
Allen continues to maintain a strong relationship with Smith and has received calls from the Dolphins and Los Angeles Rams among other teams about him leading up to the draft.
Smith’s journey to the NFL is really just two years in the making.
He played in four games, starting two, as a freshman at Tulsa in 2019 before redshirting. He earned a full-time starting role at left tackle in 2020, earning some freshman All-America mentions.
Smith started 12 games at left tackle as a redshirt sophomore in 2021, before declaring early for the 2022 NFL draft.
“I felt it was the best decision for me as a man and for my career,” he said. “You have to do what’s right for you and your family. I wanted to go against the best and become one of the best. Going to the NFL was best for me.”
Smith acknowledges he is far from a finished prospect. He has played tackle just five years dating to high school so his technique is raw and still needs some refinement.
But teams are lining up to mold him and scouts continue to rave about things you can’t teach such as his raw strength, nimble feet and mauler mentality.
Smith refused to predict where he thinks he will go in the draft but is a consensus second-round prospect with an outside chance of going late in the first round.
His biggest rise came from NFL analyst Daniel Jeremiah, who has him ranked 30th on his list of Top 100 prospects after initially having him unranked.
Smith ranks 34th on former Cowboys scout Gil Brandt’s Top 100 on NFL.com.
He would be an ideal Day 2 option for the Cowboys, who like to turn college tackles into guards in the NFL. But it is unlikely he will last until the 56th pick in the second round.
Smith remembers his teachers telling him that just 1% of high school football players make it to the NFL.
So he holds no ill will and has no regrets about his humble beginnings in recruiting. He is just happy that he is on the brink of realizing a lifelong dream that began with playing with all these teams on Madden and consuming every ESPN “E60” episode on NFL players.
“God has done so much for me, I can’t put it into words,” Smith said. “There is beauty in the struggle. It is a blessing to be a part of it and see things come to fruition.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
