Elerson
Smith.
Elerson
Smith.
Northern Iowa· 6'6"· 255 lb· 4.71s 40
"A 6'6", 255-pound FCS edge with 14 sacks in 2019, elite length (34" arms) and a 9.72 RAS pro day — a Round-4 trait project with a lost 2020 season and a huge college-to-NFL leap to bridge."Pre-draft read
Plays as a two-point wide-9 edge, winning with length, agile ankle flexion, and a plus first step. He is best as a designated pass rusher rather than a full-time base end. His primary move is a stab-and-swipe using an inside-out arc, converting speed to power at the tackle's outside shoulder; he also flashes a functional cross-chop and a spin counter. Ankle flexibility allows him to corner tightly for his frame, and an arm length of 34 inches creates a leverage advantage.
Run defense is a weakness; he struggles to anchor against tackles and loses reps when forced to two-gap. Hand placement on down blocks and reach blocks is often late. Pursuit angles and effort are consistent, but his pad level rises when he lengthens out of his stance, opening his chest. He wins primarily with explosive get-off and length.
Wide-9 attacking front that prioritizes attacking upfield, putting defensive ends in favorable pass-rushing positions.
Year 1 designated pass rusher and special teamer, with an outside shot to develop into a full-time starting wide-9 DE as he adds mass and refines his run defense technique.
Gap-heavy 3-4 two-gap scheme that asks DEs to hold the point of attack against two blockers.
Elerson Smith's rare physical traits and bend around the edge translate best to a scheme that maximizes his pass-rushing prowess while minimizing his current run defense deficiencies.
Elerson Smith, EDGE, Northern Iowa | 2021 NFL Draft Prospect Pro Day and Highlights
Pro day workout paired with UNI game highlights.
Elerson Smith - Senior Bowl
Senior Bowl one-on-one reps in Mobile.
UNI Football in the 2021 Senior Bowl | Elerson Smith & Spencer Brown
UNI-focused Senior Bowl cutup.
This edge defender projects as a developmental pass rusher whose NFL viability hinges on adding playable mass and refining his pass-rush plan to complement his natural length and explosiveness. A team acquiring him buys into his high-end athletic traits and potential as a designated pass rusher, betting on a scout's eye for physical tools over immediate, all-around impact. His 9.72 RAS profile indicates rare length-plus-explosion overlap.
His production peaked in 2019 as the Missouri Valley Defensive Player of the Year, recording significant sack and tackle-for-loss numbers against FCS competition. He subsequently lost his 2020 senior year due to the pandemic-shifted FCS spring calendar, leading to a significant time gap between competitive reps. He emerged as an under-the-radar riser at the Senior Bowl, demonstrating clean one-on-one wins against Power Five tackles.
Evaluators placed him in the Round 4–5 developmental edge tier, seeing him as a traits-over-production bet. Concerns centered on his competition level, functional play strength at a sub-260-pound weight, and the lost year of football development. He was drafted in the fourth round with the 116th pick by the New York Giants.
- 01
Exceptional Get-off
Explosive first step consistently beats tackles to the landmark, with burst flashes against Iowa State and at the Senior Bowl.
- 02
Rare Length
34-inch arms and a 6'6" frame create leverage for his stab-and-swipe move, avoiding chest exposure against tackles.
- 03
Senior Bowl Performance
Dominant one-on-one reps against Power Five tackles, effectively converting speed to power and finishing to the pocket.
- 04
Explosive Lower Half
41.5-inch vertical and 127-inch broad jumps show on tape as clean bend around the corner.
- 05
Outlier Production
14 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss in 2019 earned him Missouri Valley Defensive Player of the Year honors.
- 01
Lacks Play Strength
Struggles to anchor and is displaced on down blocks, failing to set a firm edge when tackles initiate contact.
- 02
High Pad Level
Plays out of stance with a high pad level, negating his natural length and compromising leverage on pass sets.
- 03
Unrefined Hand Usage
Relies heavily on a stab-and-swipe; his counter moves are limited, and hand placement in run defense is often late.
- 04
Competition Level
Most tape is against MVFC tackles, with the Senior Bowl as the only extended sample against Power Five competition.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.71sp50
- Vertical
- 41.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 127inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.00sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.39sp50
- Bench
- 26repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Northern Iowa | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Northern Iowa | 15 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 28 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Late-career Flowers as a length-first developmental edge who plays multiple techniques and produces in the 3–6 sack range without ever becoming a featured rusher.
Ceiling comp if the length and bend translate — a long, high-cut edge who evolved into a durable double-digit sack contributor in a rotational role.
Long, twitchy edge with pro-day athleticism who could not translate FCS/mid-round buzz into NFL production and washed out inside four seasons — the realized outcome.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Bust. Injuries wiped out most of his career (torn hamstring 2022, knee 2023). 1 career NFL sack across three seasons. Cut in 2024, journeyman practice-squad through 2025.
Pre-draft context. Smith arrived at Northern Iowa as a two-star recruit out of Minneapolis and grew into a 6'6", 255-pound edge with 14 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss in 2019, earning MVFC Defensive Player of the Year honors before the pandemic wiped out his 2020 senior fall (the FCS moved its season to spring 2021, which he opted out of). His scouting stock survived on 2019 tape plus a strong Senior Bowl week in Mobile, where he beat FBS tackles on speed-to-power reps, and a pro day that produced a 4.71 forty, 41.5-inch vertical, 127-inch broad, 7.00 three-cone and 26 bench reps at 34-inch arms — a 9.72 RAS with rare length-plus-explosion overlap.
Consensus boards had him as a Day 3 developmental edge, with the flags being the level of competition, a functional weight closer to 250 than 260, and a lost calendar year of football before the transition. NFL fit — New York Giants. The team selected him at #116 as the third edge in the class behind Azeez Ojulari and Ifeadi Odenigbo, framed as a length-and-traits developmental piece to grow behind the veteran rotation. The bet aligned with the Giants' long-standing preference for length off the edge, but the roster context (a defense in transition, no defined designated-rusher role) meant Smith needed a redshirt-style ramp against a small college sample.
Retrospective. It never came together. Smith was inactive most of his rookie year and finished 2021 with limited defensive snaps. He tore his quad in 2022, played only 12 games with modest production, and the Giants waived him in the 2023 preseason after evaluating the class. He bounced through the Bears and Vikings practice squads in 2023 and briefly caught on with Carolina before drifting out of the league — a career sack total in the low single digits. In hindsight the profile reads like a cautionary tale about weighting FCS trait bets: the length and pro-day numbers translated, but the mass, the anchor, and the pass-rush plan against NFL tackles never did.