FAB 2. Smith Doesn’t Deserve A Contract Extension – Yet

The Buccaneers signed guard Ali Marpet to a big contract extension last month, and now it’s left tackle Donovan Smith’s turn.

Like Marpet, Smith is a member of the 2015 draft class and is scheduled to become a free agent in March unless he’s re-signed or hit with the franchise tag.

But if I’m the Glazers I don’t allow general manager Jason Licht and director of football administration Mike Greenberg to pull the trigger on any more contract extensions during the season, especially for Smith. I would want to see who the head coach and general manager would be in 2019 first.

If the Glazers want to stick with Koetter and Licht so be it, but that decision likely won’t be finalized until the end of the year. If the Glazers want to move, it’s not fair to saddle the new regime with such a big contract for a player they might not want to keep.

Bucs LT Donovan Smith – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

When it comes to Smith, show me the film where he deserves it?

Was it against Cleveland when he gave up a sack-fumble to Myles Garrett?

Or how about against Carolina’s Mario Addison, who had at least one of his three sacks that day against Smith, according to head coach Dirk Koetter?

What about last week’s game against Washington late in the fourth quarter in which Smith gave up a sack-fumble to Cassanova McKinzy, which was negated due to a penalty, only to give up a sack-fumble to Preston Smith two plays later?

According to Stats Inc., Smith has given up 4.5 sacks this year in nine games. The most amount of sacks he gave up in a year was five, which happened during his rookie season and again last year. It’s a safe bet that Smith will top that number with seven games remaining.

And the Bucs are ready to hand over $13 million per year to a guy that is going to give up the most amount of sacks he’s ever surrendered – in a contract year?

Somehow I don’t believe that giving him more money will make Smith work any harder. Do you agree?

Smith gave up zero sacks in 2016 when the Bucs went 9-7. That’s the kind of play Tampa Bay needs from him right now, but isn’t getting.

To be fair, Smith had four false starts and four holding penalties as a rookie and those numbers swelled to six false starts and four holding penalties in 2016. After having two false starts and a career-high five holding penalties last year, Smith has just one false start and one holding penalty this year, so progress is being made on the penalty front.

Bucs LT Donovan Smith – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But offensive linemen are like Secret Service agents. They have to be 100 percent in their protection in order to be truly effective. That one sack-fumble that left tackles like Smith give up can be killers.

Koetter seems to think Smith having a good year.

“I think he’s been more consistent this year,” Koetter said. “Maybe in years past Donovan’s bad plays were glaring and I think he’s had quite a bit fewer of those than he has, so more consistent. Donovan is so athletically gifted for a man his size that sometimes he can look bad, but when you think about this guy is 6-foot-5 335 pounds doing some of the things he does athletically, it has to kind of bring him back down to earth. He’s not a 220-pound athlete. He’s not JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) playing left tackle. I mean he’s a 335-pound guy.”

Here are the economics at play when it comes to a possible Smith extension.

The current Bucs regime believes the 25-year old Smith is at least a top 17 left tackle. Top 17 left tackles make $11 million or more. That’s the going rate. Top 10 tackles make $12 million or more, but most of those deals are years old.

New Orleans left tackle Terron Armstead is getting paid $13 million per year and while he’s no Pro Bowler, he’s better than Smith. Yet that’s the kind of money Smith could fetch either in Tampa Bay or in free agency.

Do you know who the best left tackle in free agency is next year? Smith, which gives him leverage over the team. The other left tackle candidates are Falcons backup Ty Sambrailo and Bengals backups Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher.

This is a mediocre draft for left tackle candidates with only two possibly first-rounders in Alabama’s Jonah Williams and West Virginia’s Yodny Cajuste, so the Bucs might be stuck keeping Smith.

Bucs LT Donovan Smith – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

But I would argue that it might be worth giving him the franchise tag and paying him $1 million more than they would otherwise – without the long-term commitment. I would like to see Tampa Bay draft a tackle next year to compete with Smith and also see how Smith would fare with a new offensive line coach. I think George Warhop has done a poor job in getting the Bucs offensive line to play well over the last couple of years.

I certainly don’t treat Pro Football Focus as the word of God when it comes to football, but it’s worth pointing out that they have Smith graded as the 51st tackle in the league with a grade of 63.2, which translates to above average on their scale – right behind good, high quality and elite.

Smith hasn’t proven he’s worthy of a long-term contract yet. He’s not worth $14 million either as a franchise player, but the Bucs will have little choice but to keep him in some form or fashion because of lack of options in free agency and the draft. But with a possible coaching change coming in 2019, it’s not fair to the next regime to handcuff them with an overpaid above average left tackle, who gives up too many sacks.