Packers Evan Dietrich-Smith: 2012 Player Evaluation and Report Card

ALLGBP.com All Green Bay Packers All the Time
Evan Dietrich-Smith
Packers C/G Evan Dietrich-Smith

1) Introduction: Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers often had positive things to say about Evan Dietrich-Smith on his weekly radio show. Rodgers made it sound like Dietrich-Smith may not have taken football as seriously as he should have early in his career, but now has seen the light. I’d like to think Dietrich-Smith finally got one too many tattoos and decided to take his anger out on opposing teams, but Rodgers probably knows more than me in this situation, so we should go with the quarterback’s story.

2) Profile:

Evan Dietrich-Smith

  • Age: 26
  • Born: 07/19/1986, in Salinas, CA
  • Height: 6’2″
  • Weight: 308
  • College: Idaho St.
  • Rookie Year: 2009
  • NFL Experience: 4 years

Career Stats and more:

3) Expectations coming into the season: The “sixth man” on the offensive line. The sixth man usually sees the field at some point during the season, and that’s what happened for Dietrich-Smith.

4) Player’s highlights/low-lights: Dietrich-Smith got going once he replaced Jeff Saturday as the starting center. He’s a little small, but his physicality was a nice addition up front and he picked up the offense and line calls without a problem. Dietrich-Smith’s lowlights mostly came during his four-plus games at left guard, where he allowed all three of his sacks and racked up five penalties, according to Bob McGinn.

5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: According to Pro Football Focus, Dietrich-Smith finished with a positive run-blocking grade the first eight games he played. Unfortunately, his final four games were all graded negatively. Did Dietrich-Smith play well enough to lock down the starting job next season? Depends who’s on the board when the Packers pick in the April draft. If Dietrich-Smith is the guy, it won’t make me very nervous.

6) Player’s contributions in the playoffs: For some reason, Dietrich-Smith appeared to be asleep against the Vikings in the wild-card round. He nearly got Ryan Grant killed a few times and was generally a mess. He was better against San Francisco.

Season Report Card:

(B) Level of expectations met during the season

(C) Contributions to team’s overall success.

(D+) Contributions to team during the playoffs

Overall Grade: C+

——————

Adam Czech is a a freelance sports reporter living in the Twin Cities and a proud supporter of American corn farmers. When not working, Adam is usually writing about, thinking about or worrying about the Packers. Follow Adam on Twitter. Twitter .

——————

10 thoughts on “Packers Evan Dietrich-Smith: 2012 Player Evaluation and Report Card

  1. Yes, he was better than a 37 year old FA at the end of his career. Does that mean they have a starting center now? No way! A bigger more physical presence is needed in the center of the line.

    I think there are a few centers available in the draft that could add substantial value to the Oline. My personal preference would be Travis Frederick from Wisconsin. Ok, I’m a died in the wool Badger fan and Alumni, I might be prejudiced a bit. There are others, as pointed out by other posters to this site. They, too, would be good choices.

    EDS is not a regular starting center. His playoff grade is a clue. He can’t handle the aggressive inside rushers of the teams they must beat on the way to the SB. He’s an adequate backup C/G, nothing more.

    1. Everyone said Wells wasn’t a regular starting center too. He turned out pretty well and EDS is bigger than Wells or at least the same size.

        1. Wells combine and EDS pro day are almost identical in quickness. Neither has trouble getting to the 2nd level.

          1. combine has nothing to do with it. Wells had a quicker first step at the snap, in my opinion. just out of curiosity what were their combine agility numbers?

            1. Wells 10 split 1.81, shuttle 4.4 and 3 cone 7.56
              EDS 1.76, 4.4 and 7.36.

              Wells worked hard to execute combo blocks and get to the 2nd level quickly. No reason EDS shouldn’t be able to do as well w a little work.

  2. If one of the top centers is there for the taking grab them in round 2 or three. I have seen numerous mocks, including Draftteks (which i think is the best on the web, no kissing al’s butt, they just have the best system) has barrett jones in the mid 2nd round. barrett jones is a stud and would upgrade the interior big time. a dominant center makes the life of the guards easier and in turn makes life easier for the tackles. you can have an okay OL with a weak center, but you cannot have a great OL without a great center.

    1. Barrett Jones has been compared to Daryn Colledge. I don’t see a stud. He’s a technician and versatile. Those are his best traits. Not a big physical player by any means. He weighs less than EDS and is much taller. Playing w other great OL at Bama made him look a lot better than he is.

  3. I like EDS but not really as a starter. We can win with a average to below average center but it would be nice to uncover a gem in the mid to late round of the draft. I would hate to see us waste a hgh pick on a center when we could use that pick on a WR, LB or DL. A good Center would give us 4 good to pro-bowl type OL. All we would need then is for Sherrod to come back healthy and live up to the 1st round pick and we are one of the best OL’s in the league.

Comments are closed.