Bills Meet 'Unique' Georgia Pass-Rusher Nolan Smith at NFL Scouting Combine
There is wisdom in "collecting'' pass-rushers. It's a premium position and too few humans are ideally fit to play it.
The Buffalo Bills employ one such human in the rehabbing Von Miller. And at the NFC Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, they've met a Georgia prospect who might quality as another.
Georgia’s Nolan Smith told reporters (hat-tip WIVB-TV) this week that he has met with the team as he prepares to enter the April NFL Draft as a highly-touted prospect who starred for the national champs as a senior until an October pectoral injury ended his season.
Still, Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart praised the standout for his contributions.
“Nolan is unique,” Smart said late in the year. “Nolan Smith cares dearly about this university. He would give anything. He'd probably rather play with that (injured) arm if it meant hurting him in the NFL Draft. He didn't care. He wants to win. He's a competitor and those guys are hard to find and rare.
"His messaging and presence, I told him he could impact this game just getting guys to go line up faster."
At 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, Smith - rated by scouting expert Dane Brugler as a top-19 pick in the draft - is thought of as both a pass rusher and a run defender.
The Bills, picking at No. 27 in Round 1, are not starving for help on the edge, with Miller and Greg Rousseau returning as the starters at defensive end, and with a pair of former second-round picks, A.J. Epenesa and Boogie Basham, also contributing.
It so happens that Smith is a Von Miller fan ... and maybe he's destined to be a Von Miller teammate.
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