Durham Smythe – August 26, 2020
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Wednesday, August 26, 2020
TE Durham Smythe
(We talked to Tight Ends Coach George Godsey last week, and he talked about you sort of playing that unheralded position – the in-line position – where you might not get 50 or 100 catches in a year. How have you sort of maybe embraced that role that doesn’t necessarily get the acclaim from everyone?) – “Well, that’s something that I’ve kind of – a role I’ve fulfilled for a while in my football career, dating back to college and obviously through the last two years. I think it’s an important part of the game. There’s a lot of guys on a lot of other teams that do the same thing. They come in, kind of fulfill multiple roles, benefit the running game and things like that. You kind of throw yourself in the same boat in terms of not getting the recognition, just with the o-line, because those guys always say you only get the recognition when something bad happens. You kind of throw yourself in the same boat as that and just kind of appreciate what you bring to the table.”
(I just wanted to ask about TE Adam Shaheen. We haven’t heard much about him and obviously you’re in a room where you’re constantly around each other. What’s he like as a teammate and what has he brought to the table?) – “Yeah, Adam is a great guy. He fits well in our room. He’s smart. He’s caught the offense – from a mental standpoint – very quickly. He’s one of the guys. Like I said, he kind of came in and just fit right in for us. He’s taking the offense mentally very well and now he’s just kind of one of us. It’s been a very smooth transition, I think, for him.”
(Even though you’re an excellent blocking tight end, I’ve noticed that you’ve made some catches out here during this training camp. How have you improved yourself as a pass-catching threat?) – “I think I’ve kind of benefit from being in a room the last few years with guys who have natural talent in different ways. I think with me and Mike (Gesicki) going into our third year here, we kind of took a step back after last year, and thought ‘How can we benefit this offense by something more than just what we’re good at personally?’ I think we worked this offseason a lot on trying to become more versatile – more multiple – which I think will eventually kind of eradicate some of our tendency-based things within our offense. Obviously I spend a lot of time talking to Mike talking about how he releases, routes, stuff like that. I’ve spent some time with him about the nitty-gritty in the run game. I think hopefully if we can both benefit in those areas, we’ll be a lot less tendency-based in this offense.”
(Your first impressions catching passes from QB Tua Tagovailoa, what thoughts came to mind about how he throws the ball? And also, what’s the locker room experience been like this year where obviously you’re not close and bunched together, you have those devices that could go off if you’re close to other people. Has it been a strange existence in the locker room?) – “First of all with Tua, he’s got a great arm. That’s evident to everyone immediately. He’s also a great teammate. I’ll throw that in even though that wasn’t really a part of it. He’s one of the guys already. He fits in great, (is a) smart guy and can make all of the throws. I guess that answers the question: what jumps out at you immediately is he can put the ball anywhere he wants. Obviously he’s a rookie quarterback and in your first couple of weeks, there’s things you want to shake out and everything; but he’s a guy that obviously can make all of the throws. To answer your second question, yeah it’s odd. Especially being a guy that really loves that locker room culture. It’s weird not being able to just kind of come into the locker room, throw off your pads and go jump into a locker next to somebody else and start talking face-to-face right there. It’s definitely odd. You can still do that to an extent behind some glass, behind a mask and things of that nature; but for now, it’s what we have to deal with, so we’ll continue to do it and I think we’ll try to build a culture around it.”
(You played in a lot of 12 personnel with TE Mike Gesicki last year. As you mentioned, part of that unheralded role – you guys two play two different roles, as you mentioned – so how do you think you guys balance each other in that package?) – “Like I said, I think we have natural talents in different areas. I think mainly because of what we have physically – whether it’s size, speed, maybe a history with the run game or a history with running routes. I think that’s where a lot of the narrative comes out is that I’m the guy that’s going to come in and be the in-line blocker and he’s going to come in and catch all of the passes. Which, to this point, it has been. Like I said, I think this offseason, going into Year 3, I think we understand the game enough to where we kind of took a step back and thought about how we can both become more versatile to benefit this offense as a whole. I think that’s something that hopefully through this training camp and through this season, we can bring about.”
