Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy spoke with reporters before practice on Friday, discussing rookie Brashard Smith’s development in the offense.
“Not making mistakes, mentally, he’s (Brashard Smith) doing what he needs to do. And then you saw a little sprinkle of it last week when he caught that ball on the sideline and got hit a few times and stayed in bounds and probably got six extra yards that most people wouldn’t get. That’s the physical part that we see. The mental part is being able to eliminate mistakes,” said Nagy. “We’re okay with mistakes, but you just can’t make the same mistake twice. Well, he’s not doing that now. We’re able to put him in on some packages where he can study those throughout the week, and you don’t want him to play slow. You want to use his strengths, which are ball skills and speed, and then put that into fruition. We really want that to continue to keep growing moving forward.
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Smith earned Third-team Associated Press All-American, All-Purpose, and First-team All-ACC honors in his final college season with SMU. He led the team with 1,332 rushing yards on 235 carries and 14 rushing touchdowns. He converted from wide receiver to running back during that season.
“Well, he is new at that position. I mean, he has a whole year at it in college, it is different.” said Nagy, “In the NFL, probably with us, it’s more schematics of what type of run game, footwork, wiser you know, whether it’s inside zone, mid zone, RPOs versus under center, protection versus scat, there’s a lot that goes into that. So kind of giving them a little bit at a time, and getting to a point where, when we get to the end of the season, we feel like he could do a lot more for us and not be so much one-dimensional at times, which is what we’re trying to go with.”
Smith has seen limited action to start his career, but is getting more snaps weekly as the third running back on the depth chart.
This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: Chiefs OC Matt Nagy on Brashard Smith’s development in the offense