D'Ante
Smith.
D'Ante
Smith.
East Carolina· 6'5"· 305 lb· 5.33s 40
"A 6-5⅜, 305-pound East Carolina tackle with 35¼-inch arms and an 85-inch wingspan, a Senior Bowl invite off a run-heavy AAC offense — a Day 3 developmental swing-tackle projection built on length, not testing."Pre-draft read
The player is a length-first left tackle. In pass protection, he uses a wide, patient short-kick to bait rushers, preferring to catch and mirror. He resets hands cleanly when the first strike misses; when his long-arm lands inside the frame, edges struggle to disengage due to his arm length.
Lower-body athleticism issues manifest as heavy feet against college speed rushers and average redirect versus inside counters. Quicker rushers convert speed-to-power or spin under his punch. His anchor relies on length more than sink, stalling power with reach rather than a rooted base. In the run game, he is a positional zone blocker with enough length to hook 3-techniques and foot quickness to reach the backside on wide zone.
A classic wide zone scheme that builds its run game around reach blocks and cuts off the backside.
Year one as a designated swing tackle who can develop into a starting left tackle within two seasons.
Any power/gap-heavy run schemes that ask him to displace defenders and generate movement off the ball.
His elite length and smooth pass-set technique make him an intriguing developmental tackle in a zone-heavy scheme, but his athletic limitations will be exposed in power running or against elite NFL rushers.
DAnte Smith — College Highlight Film Reel/Senior Bowl Highlights
Compiled ECU and Senior Bowl reel emphasizing his short-kick pass sets, long-arm punches, and reach on wide-zone runs.
DAnte Smith Highlights — Senior Bowl
Reeses Senior Bowl practice tape from Mobile showing his length against Power-Five edge rushers in one-on-ones.
DAnte Smith Bengals Introductory Press Conference
Post-draft press conference in Cincinnati covering his ECU career, Senior Bowl reps, and fit as a developmental Bengals tackle.
Smith projects as a developmental pass protector whose evaluation is built on elite length and pass-set patience. His 35¼-inch arms and 85¼-inch wingspan, both in the 97th percentile or higher for tackles, provide a strong foundation for an NFL pass set. His testing profile, including a 5.33 forty-yard dash, indicates limited lower-body athleticism.
He started 32 games at East Carolina, with 24 at left tackle and 8 at right tackle, playing in a run-heavy scheme. He earned a Reese's Senior Bowl invite, showcasing his abilities against Group of Five competition. This experience against varying looks and in different tackle spots suggests a player comfortable adapting his technique.
Evaluators consistently saw him as a fourth-to-sixth-round developmental left tackle. The trade-off was his elite length and pass-set technique against a poor athletic testing profile and a lower level of competition in college. He was drafted by Cincinnati at pick 139 overall.
- 01
Elite length
35¼-inch arms and an 85¼-inch wingspan (97th/98th percentile among OTs) provide a genuine plus-length pass-set profile.
- 02
Short-set patience
skilled at using a wide, disciplined short-kick to keep rushers in front, allowing his long-arm punch to travel.
- 03
Hand replacement
cleanly resets his inside hand when the initial strike misses, avoiding common issues faced by long-armed tackles.
- 04
Positional versatility
accrued 32 college starts split between left tackle (24) and right tackle (8), offering swing-tackle experience.
- 05
Zone-scheme feel
demonstrates long strides and enough foot quickness to reach the backside on wide zone and hook 3-techniques.
- 01
Poor testing profile
a 5.33 forty (6th percentile) and 4.75 shuttle (12th) suggest a heavy-footed athlete whose movement does not match his length.
- 02
Anchor is length, not sink
stalls power with reach rather than a rooted, sunk base, allowing bull-rushers to walk him back more easily.
- 03
Lateral quickness
displays average redirect against inside counters and spin moves, leading to slow recovery footwork when initial punch misses.
- 04
Run-game finish
screens and positions defenders rather than consistently uprooting them, limiting his effectiveness in gap-heavy downhill schemes.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.33sp50
- Vertical
- 29inp50
- Broad jump
- 113inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.90sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.75sp50
- Bench
- 24repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | East Carolina | 7 |
| 2018 | East Carolina | 12 |
| 2019 | East Carolina | 12 |
| 2020 | East Carolina | 1 |
| Career | — | 32 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Journeyman 6-8 developmental tackle who lived as an emergency starter and OL7/8 on frame and reach alone — the Day 3 outcome most projected for Smith.
Best-case swing tackle whose long-armed pass-set patience keeps him employed as a spot starter — the length-first NFL floor that actually hit for a similar body type.
Long-armed Day 3 tackle drafted for developmental length who bounced between roster, IR, and practice squad without ever locking down a rotational role — the cautionary comp inside Cincinnatis own building.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Bust. 3 career starts across three years (all below-average). Cut before Year 4, signed with the Chiefs on a futures deal, out of the league by 2025.
Pre-draft context. Smith was a lightly-recruited three-star tackle out of Grovetown, Georgia who redshirted at East Carolina in 2016, then started 32 games across 2018-2020 at both tackle spots for the Pirates. He was moved from right tackle to the blind side in 2019 and he never left it, closing his college career on the Reese's Senior Bowl National roster in Mobile — his only true against-the-elite showcase. Pro-day length was the file: 35¼-inch arms, 85¼-inch wingspan, and 10-inch hands, all north of the 90th percentile among NFL tackles, in a body still growing into itself at 305 pounds.
NFL fit — Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati drafted him at pick 139 to develop behind Riley Reiff, Jonah Williams, and Isaiah Prince on a line that had just given up 48 sacks around Joe Burrow's rookie ACL. Those assessing the team's needs were explicit that Smith was a length-and-technique project, not a Week 1 answer, with a swing-tackle ceiling on a Bengals team building around Burrow's blind side.
Retrospective. Four years in, Smith has been exactly what the pre-draft file projected — a length-first backup who has bounced between the active roster, injured reserve, and rotational spot-start duty in Cincinnati. His 2021 rookie season was mostly a redshirt behind the veterans. He earned meaningful snaps in 2022 filling in when Jonah Williams missed time, then lost the 2024 season entirely to a torn patellar tendon suffered in joint practice with the Bears in August 2024. Cincinnati let him walk in free agency after the injury, and he enters the back half of his rookie contract as a fringe-roster developmental tackle rather than the Round 4 pipeline starter Cincinnati hoped for — a backup/miss on the pick relative to Day 3 OL like Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith in the same class.