April 18, 2018
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- The NFL draft is a little over a week away, and the conversation surrounding it continues to pick up. What will this team do? How will this player fit their scheme? What will a team get if they draft this player?
One thing we know for sure -- if a team drafts Braden Smith, they're going to get a guy who brings his lunch pail to work every single day.
"They're definitely going to get a hard worker," former Auburn teammate Austin Golson said. "An extremely powerful, strong guy. He's a road grader, and I think any team that gets him will be very happy with what he does."
We won't know where Smith will land until next week's draft. We also won't know which round he'll go in, though most project the former Auburn offensive lineman to be taken in the second or third round. What we do know is that whatever team does draft him will get a guy that can come in and play immediately if need be.
"I think Braden Smith is the most underrated of this (Auburn) group," ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said Wednesday. "I liked the way he tested, the way he played. I think you get into the third round for Braden Smith, and you get a plug-and-play starter as a rookie."
At the combine, Smith finished in the top three among all offensive linemen in bench reps (35), vertical jump (33.5 inches) and broad jump (9 feet, 5 inches). He also finished 11th in the 40-yard dash (5.22) and measured in at 6-foot-6, 315 pounds.
"I felt like I had a solid performance," Smith said. "I got what I needed to get done, showed some of the athletic ability I was talking about and the explosion, especially on the jumps. And on the bench, I felt like I put up a solid number to show my muscle endurance."
Smith said he talked to just about every NFL team while in Indianapolis that week.
While at Auburn, the four-year starter was the model of consistency. He appeared in 53 games with 41 consecutive starts dating back to 2014.
"I think Auburn really helped me as a player, and also, coming back, we had a great season this year," Smith said. "And it's always important to come back with the education because I got my degree now. I graduated. So that's going to take me throughout life. Football is only going to last as long as it lets you."
There's still plenty of football ahead of Smith. The next step will be seeing which team drafts him and where he'll continue playing.
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf