Smith plays the position the way a coach draws it up. His kick slide is compact and repeatable, he never oversells the arc, and because he keeps his outside shoulder square he takes away the inside counter that so many college tackles surrender. When his hands land first, the rep is over: he snatches the chest plate, resets his feet and walks rushers past the pocket. He is at his most impressive in the run game, where he leaves his stance quickly, climbs to the second level under control and squares up linebackers in space instead of lunging at them. He rarely ends up on the ground.

There is nothing violent about how he wins. He is not a mauler who buries defenders, and he does not create movement with sheer mass. He wins with angles, timing and grip strength, sticking to the block once he is attached, which is exactly what a wide-zone offense asks of a tackle. Indiana asked him to protect against the best edges in the sport in three straight playoff games and he answered more often than not.

The evaluation starts with what he has already proven. He started 41 games across three seasons, all at left tackle, and finished his championship year as a consensus All-American, first-team All-Big Ten and the conference's Offensive Lineman of the Year — the first Indiana lineman to earn that first-team recognition since 1987. That is not a projection; that is production against Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama and Miami.

The questions are physical, not technical. He does not have elite length or elite foot quickness, and against dip-and-bend speed rushers, the ones who can turn the corner flat, he can get pushed past the quarterback's back foot. His hands occasionally land outside the frame before he corrects, a habit that draws holding flags in the NFL. And when he tries to generate power he bends at the waist rather than the knees, which is when his feet go static.

The medical file matters too. He had surgery in January 2026 to repair a labral tear in his left shoulder, missed all of spring practice and was only cleared shortly before fall camp. Teams will pull that chart hard given it is his pass-set shoulder. If his arm length measures acceptably at the Senior Bowl, he is a plug-and-play zone left tackle. If it measures short, he becomes one of the best guard prospects in the class — which is still a starter.