NFL Draft
3/10/25
5 min read
Brashard Smith 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For SMU Mustangs RB
Height: 5092 (verified)
Weight: 195lbs (verified)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Duke Johnson
Scouting Overview
SMU Mustangs running back Brashard Smith is a speedy, explosive runner who offers an upside play for NFL teams. Smith boasts legit 4.3 speed with the open-field ability to tear apart second-level pursuit angles.
There’s appeal here on special teams as well. Smith is an accomplished returner who can provide value in this facet at the NFL level. He’s not a complete player by any means, and improving his consistency in hitting gaps would aid him in reaching his full potential as a runner.
This dynamic is not necessarily unexpected as a former wide receiver who only recently converted to play running back. As a result, he projects as a developmental talent.
2025 NFL Combine Results
| Position | Name | School | 40-Yard Dash | 10-Yard Split | Broad Jump | Vertical Jump | 3-Cone Drill | 20-Yard Shuttle | Bench Press |
| RB | Brashard Smith | SMU | 4.39 | 1.58 | 117 | 32.5 |
Positives
- Electric open-field speed with a second gear that allows him to hit home runs consistently
- Pass-catching ability is in the upper echelon of backs as a former wide receiver
- Special teams and return ability aid his 53-man roster outlook early as he develops
Negatives
- Vision and anticipation pressing the line of scrimmage is almost “ground level.
- Lacks size, mass, and power to churn dirty yards and push the pile
- Far too passive and ineffective with his pass-protection assignments
Background
Smith is from Richmond Heights, FL, and played high school football at Miami Palmetto HS. There, he was a 4-star recruit (247 Sports) as a wide receiver who initially committed to the University of Florida before flipping his commitment to the University of Miami. He enrolled there as a member of their 2021 recruiting class.
As a true freshman in 2021, Smith caught a handful of passes while playing sparingly across 12 games for the Hurricanes. By 2022, he was a bit more involved in the offense and played 11 games with 33 receptions in addition to his kick return duties. Smith was named Second Team All-ACC as a kick returner in 2023, posting 20 returns for 579 yards (29 yards per return) and one touchdown. After the 2023 season, Smith entered his name into the transfer portal.
Smith landed with SMU and transitioned to running back. He rewarded the Mustangs’ vision with nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards and 18 total touchdowns to finish his college career.
He accepted an invitation to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Tale Of The Tape
Smith is understandably raw as a running back prospect, thanks to spending the majority of his college career playing wide receiver. But the instincts with the ball in his hands are a good bet to place on Day 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft. Smith is a speedy talent with the kind of juice that powerful offensive lines could make life easier for if they can pop open point-of-attack gaps as designed in a gap scheme.
Given Smith’s new exposure to working out of the backfield and processing front-seven leverage and gap development, putting him in a gap scheme may align best with taking some of the margin of error out of his runs.
Smith can be late to commit to gaps and, at other times, second-guess, hitting an available alley, which creates added time in the backfield that is unadvisable for playing at the NFL level. Smith isn’t a big bruiser of a back and is built more like a wide receiver in general — so getting him through creases and into the second level should be a focus.
Smith is light on his feet and can quickly gear up or bounce off track when he’s confident with his trajectory. He offers plenty of speed to capture the edge, and as he masters his cadence, he’ll have more ability to create steep cuts and take advantage of overplay from opposing fronts.
The challenge with Smith is what you do with him as he develops — his position is often loaded with options, so he will need to find added value to justify an active roster spot and dress on game days. Smith’s special teams prowess should help. He’s an accomplished returner who should be given an opportunity to win a returning job for a team. If he can do that, he can dress and perhaps work his way into a rotational role.
The passing game profile is promising, thanks to his receiving background, but his work in pass protection is going to need massive investment and improvement. He doesn’t take aggressive angles to close down angles on free runners, and he lacks the blocking posture, hand strike, or anchor to consistently hold his gap.
More often than not, he’ll throw a shoulder pad into a defender, uncovering in a gap, or try to cut low, even when he’d be better served to stick his face in and simply take the block head-on.
If Smith is going to become an NFL starter someday, this element of his game needs to be leaps and bounds better to justify either a third down role or a primary runner opportunity.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Smith projects as a rotational running back early in his NFL career. He was finally able to make the most of his running ability in the SMU spread offense, and he’ll benefit from playing for an 11p-heavy team that can create similar spacing opportunities and position him to hit creases with a full head of steam.
But his contributions on passing downs in protection must be bolstered before he’s trusted to be anything other than a developmental talent and potential return specialist.
Grade: 71.00/100.00, Fifth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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