Steve Smith

                           RUSHING                            RECEIVING                            FANTASY

(+) For the first time in his career, Steve Smith has a good QB throwing him the ball

(+) Had the second-most yards-per-catch in his career with 17.6 YPC in 2011

(+) Steve Smith won the PYRO All-Stars contest for best athlete at WR (podcast)

(+) Played all 16 games last year, so he can still take a lickin’ (durable)

(+) Steve is the most competitive player in the league at any position

(+) He has that feisty Napoleon Complex that makes him play angry and dole out punishment to defenders

(+) Carolina tends to play catch-up football with their defense as bad as it is

(–) 33-years old is getting up there for a skill-position player

(–) Carolina is still looking for a solid WR2 to help ease the coverage on smith (Maybe LaFell?)

(–) Not a big TD guy. In 2005, he had 12, but 2006 = 8, '07 = 7, '08 = 6, '09 = 7, '10 = 2, '11 = 7

(–) Never used in the red zone as he's a paltry 5'9"

(–) Just got paid $37.75 million over four years which will likely be the final contract-signing of his career

(–) Five 100-yard games in the first half of the season, yet only one 100-yard game the second half

(–) He has been an all first-half guy the last two years. He starts hot, then takes a dip

Steve Smith had a nice run among the top echelon of receivers for awhile, but it was cut short this past year after finishing 18^th in the league with just 142.1 fantasy points (basic scoring system).  Not only was it his lowest fantasy output over the past five seasons, but it was also the lowest amount of receptions (65) and fewest yards (982) he’d put up over that time period as well.  What’s even more alarming about the drop-off is that he ended up sitting on the bottom rung of the NFLs Steve Smith totem pole!  However, the good news in all this is that none of it had anything to do with Smith as a football player.  The Panthers lack of even a decent WR2 left Smitty double-teamed for most of the year, while his QB for the first 11 games, Jake Delhomme, was about as useless as a one-armed trapeze artist with an itchy ass.  Another bit of good news was that as soon as backup QB Matt Moore was inserted into the lineup, Smitty went right back to his dominating self by averaging just under 14 fantasy points a game.

Stevie may be on the undesirable side of 30 at this point (he turned 31 in May), but that doesn’t mean he’s poised for a downfall anytime soon… well, at least not this year.  He doesn’t look to have lost a step in his “old age”, and after the down season he just had, you can bet he’s motivated as hell to show his critics where they can shove their cynicism.  Smith’s always had a bit of an edge to him and takes these sorts of things personally, so you can bet your ass he’ll let QB Matt Moore know just how bad he wants the ball this year.  He won’t climb back into the top-5 WRs like he was in the past, but despite his offseason flag-football mishap, expect him to end up as one of the better fantasy WR2s in 2010 with an upside of cracking the top-10.

~ Jake Delhomme is in Cleveland, which is far enough away from Carolina not to affect Smith’s numbers anymore

~ Steve and his new QB, Matt Moore, look to really be in sync

~ DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart will still force defenses to clog the middle, thus opening up the field for Smith

~ Will the Panthers continued lack of a solid WR2 affect Smitty the same way it has in the past?

Stevie does not have a Twitter account.  The official Team Twitter account comes through here:  Panthers Player Tweets

Follow Pyro® on Twitter @pyroman1ac

Steve Smith likes to get into fights with his teammates:

Back in May of '07, Stevie signed himself a six-year deal worth $43.85 million, with $9.3 million of it handed over as a signing bonus.  $6 million more was shelled out as a roster bonus in the second year (already collected) and another $2 million more in the third (also already collected).  The rest is as follows:

2010 - $5.75 million

2011 - $7 million

2012 - $7.75 million

2013 - Free Agent

It’s looking like rookie Brandon LaFell should be the handcuff to Smith this year

• Offensive Line


• Offensive Scheme


• Major Off-Season Moves


• 2010 NFL Draft

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