NFL draft 2021: Mike Quick is not worried about 166-pound DeVonta Smith’s ability to survive in the NFL

Having played nine NFL seasons back in the day when there were few restrictions with respect to the pain and suffering opposing defensive backs and linebackers could inflict on wide receivers, Mike Quick initially had some reservations about DeVonta Smith’s ability to survive and prosper even in the new-age kinder, gentler NFL.

Quick, a five-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro, saw the spectacular numbers the kid put up last year at Alabama – 117 catches, 1,856 yards, 23 touchdowns – but had trouble getting past his toothpick-thin 166-pound frame.

The more tape he watched of the Eagles’ first-round draft pick, however, the less concerned he became about Smith’s ability to take an NFL licking and keep on ticking.

“I did a piece on him for NBC-10,” Quick, the Eagles’ longtime radio analyst, said. “I cut out these clips of him catching the ball in traffic because I was one of the people thinking he’s so small he’s going to get killed.

“But once I looked a little bit deeper, I saw him catch the ball over the middle and make contested catches and catch the ball in traffic. When you’re doing that against the best of the best at that level, I think it gives you a whole lot to go on.”

Quick insists that he wasn’t “a whole lot bigger” than Smith when the Eagles took him with the 20th overall pick in the 1982 draft. I covered him during his career. He wasn’t D.K. Metcalf, but he also didn’t have a Kendall Jenner waist.

“If you watch the way he plays, he plays with such ease,” Quick said of Smith. “He seems to know how to get out of harm’s way. He seems to get down when he needs to get down. He’s really good that way.

“He played against the best competition you could possibly play against in college, and he basically dominated the position. There’s nothing he can’t do.”

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Besides putting up spectacular numbers as a receiver, Smith also played a career-high 91 special-teams snaps for ‘Bama last year, including 27 as a gunner on punt coverage. That’s right. The guy who caught 117 passes and won the Heisman Trophy was a gunner on punt coverage.

“What did it for me was learning that,” Quick said. “That, to me, isn’t a wide receiver who wants to be a diva. That, to me, is a football player.”

With the addition of Smith, and the return to health of a veteran offensive line that had to use an NFL-record 14 different starting combinations last season, Quick thinks the Eagles “have a really good chance to be a very potent offense.”

The Eagles finished 26th in scoring, 28th in passing yards and third-down percentage, and allowed a league-high 65 quarterback sacks last season.

But Quick feels the combination of Smith, Jalen Reagor, and tight end Dallas Goedert is going to create major matchup problems for opposing defenses.

“Those three guys are going to be awfully tough to defend,” he said. “I think they have set themselves up to really create nightmares for opposing defenses. I really believe that.”

Smith lined up both outside and in the slot for the Crimson Tide. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Thursday that he will move Smith and Reagor “all over the place.”

“I don’t think they’ll limit him,” Quick said. “I think everything will be based on matchups and how they think they can best get him open.

“With the Colts,” where Sirianni was the offensive coordinator before taking the Eagles job, “they do a lot of different things with T.Y. Hilton. He’s slot. He’s jet-motion. He’s outside. I think with both of these guys now, having Reagor and now having this kid, there’s so much you can do to put stress on the defense.

“Both of them have that top-end speed. They can beat you deep. Both of them have the ability to do the dirty work. I think adding him to this offense gives Sirianni and his guys a lot of nice tools to play with.”

The addition of Smith should potentially speed up the development of second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts and Smith played together at Alabama.

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“I think it’s like, rather than putting on new shoes, you’re putting on some comfortable shoes that you know real well,” Quick said. “You know how they fit your feet.

“I think both of these guys are excited about the fact that they are reuniting and playing together again.”

Hurts will be the key to the success of the Eagles offense this season. For now at least, he’s in a good place. He’s got a veteran offensive line with nearly 400 combined starts and 10 Pro Bowls in front of him and some terrific weapons to throw to. But he still has to execute.

“The jury is still out in my head because I just haven’t seen enough of him,” Quick said, referring to Hurts’ four late-season starts after Carson Wentz was benched. “I saw a lot of good stuff. And I saw areas that needed improvement.

“There’s just no way you can assess a quarterback in this league, or really any position, from that small of a sample. So, I like a lot that he brings to the party, but we do have to see more.”