What's behind the slow start for Irv Smith Jr?

Vikings' tight end had a terrific camp but he went without a single target on Sunday

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Last year Irv Smith Jr. was the highest graded rookie tight end by Pro Football Focus. He caught 36 passes for 311 yards and Kirk Cousins had a 109.3 passer rating when targeting the former Alabama star. During training camp, everything seemed to point toward a breakout season for Smith Jr. But through three games, he has two receptions on five targets and three penalties.

Against the Tennessee Titans, he went without a target. That only happened twice to Smith Jr. last season and one of those games was his NFL debut against the Atlanta Falcons.

“I feel like I have a role on this team and each week it’s a different role with different gameplans,” Smith Jr. said on Wednesday. “Coach Kubiak does a great job of putting us in the right places. I feel like whatever my role is I’m going to embrace it and help this team win.”

Earlier this offseason, offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak raved about Smith Jr.’s progress and teammates said they saw him taking the next step.

“You just see a much higher comfort level mentally, being that he’s gone through it all before, he knows what to expect, he knows the offense, he played in the offense last year,” tight end Kyle Rudolph said.

But it hasn’t just been a lack of targets — after all, game situations might play into a statistic like that. Even after he solidified himself in the offense last year there were games where Smith Jr. only caught one or two passes — but he has committed costly penalties.

In Indianapolis, he pushed off on a potential big reception and was flagged for offensive pass interference and then he committed an illegal cut block (a play which he was fined for).

With a chance to put a fork in Tennessee, Smith Jr.’s hold with 5:15 remaining negated Dalvin Cook run and set the offense up with first-and-20. They punted three plays later and head coach Mike Zimmer highlighted the play both in his post-game press conference and on Monday afternoon.

“It’s something I’m going to work on and take notice of, especially at the end of the game and times like that,” Smith Jr. said.

Smith Jr.’s snap counts in 2019 topped 40 eight times but over his first three games he hasn’t had a game with 40-plus snaps. And while the Vikings moved him around often as a rookie he’s played only 24 out of 102 snaps (23%) outside of a traditional tight end position. Last season 40% of Smith’s snaps came either in the slot or outside receiver.

Of course, Smith Jr. isn’t alone in being left out of the party. The group of weapons not named Justin Jefferson or Adam Thielen haven’t seen much action. Combined Jefferson and Thielen have 36 targets while the rest of the team has 35. Rudolph only has six throws his way.

On the team side, Smith Jr. said he has never dealt with an 0-3 start before or anything close. He noted that in college under Nick Saban he lost three total games.

“It's something definitely that is tough but me personally, I have great people to fall back on and ask good questions,” Smith Jr. said. “My dad [former NFL TE Irv Smith Sr.], he's very helpful, just kind of telling me, stay positive at the end of the day. You can only control what you can control, but it's a team sport, so we just have to get everybody moving in the right direction and everybody moving in a positive mindset.”

Was his performance as poor as zero targets suggest? Let’s have a look at the tape…

There’s a theme that’s going to develop here and it begins early in the game. That’s Kirk Cousins getting pressured and making decisions that don’t go in Smith Jr.’s direction. Smith Jr. wasn’t used early in the game so we pick up in the second quarter with the Vikings backed up at the 12-yard line. Smith Jr. runs seam route against man coverage with a single-high safety look. Rob Gronkowski can attest to this route’s effectiveness vs. single high. But Cousins is instantly pressured up the middle and he finds Justin Jefferson wide open.

Just as Cousins was releasing the ball, Smith Jr. was getting an edge on the cornerback, who was playing man coverage against him. If Cousins has more time (and if the play is designed to go Smith Jr.’s way), he would have had a good shot at an explosive play based on beating the corner by dipping his shoulder and freezing the defender and then accelerating upfield.

Our next play we find Cousins again looking toward Jefferson on a quick route. This one needs little explanation. Smith Jr. runs an out route vs. a corner and he’s open but Cousins simply hits an equally open Jefferson for a first down.

Smith Jr. has become a strong run blocker for a young, undersized tight end. He was above average by PFF last year and on Sunday his ability paid off with Dalvin Cook’s 39-yard touchdown run.

The Vikings’ tight end has to sift through bodies falling and patiently work his way into the gap, where he angles his body enough to take care of the linebacker and open the hold for Cook to cruise through for a touchdown.

Back to Cousins getting pressured.

On his pick-six-that-wasn’t, Smith Jr. finds the open space against what appears to be zone coverage by the Titans. He’s wide open but Cousins has zero time to react and flings it in Jefferson’s direction.

Had this play gone off on time and in Smith Jr.’s direction, it might have offered an opportunity to run after catch as he did at times last year. He was more or less alone with the linebacker after the Titans blitzed the A gap.

Our next clip shows a concerning trend with bootlegs this year. The Titans did not bite and Tennessee’s linebacker finds Smith Jr. coming behind him on the deep crosser with ease. Had the linebacker been fooled, Smith Jr. ends up open on this play but this was a case of good execution that left the tight end double covered.

Later in the game, it appeared Cousins sped things up with the rush coming down on him all game.

On the play below, both Smith Jr. and Rudolph clear the linebackers and are open but Cousins already pulled the ball down and took off. By his head, it looks like he was going to target Rudolph instead of Smith Jr. but this was another instance of the 2019 second-rounder being open and simply not getting a look.

Our next clip does appear to be the first read for Cousins but he comes off Smith Jr. and checks down to CJ Ham. The play turns out to be successful but you wonder if the Vikings’ interior O-line had been holding up maybe Cousins stays on Smith and hits him on the 15-yard (or so) dig route.

None of this is to say that Smith Jr. has secretly had the start to the 2020 season that we expected. But on Sunday his opportunities were limited in part by Jefferson exploding onto the scene and by the constant pressure Cousins faced. On the whole, the Vikings’ QB was under duress on 18 of 30 drop backs.

This will probably be the case going forward, so there may need to be an adjustment to use Smith Jr. on quicker throws, the same way Jefferson started off the game.

Smith Jr. said on Wednesday “it’s a long season,” and he’s right. If this trend continues through the midway point, it would be time to ask questions. Right now, we should expect him toget back on track soon.

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