Cincinnati Bengals: 5 players who stood out after 1st padded practice
Cincinnati Bengals who stood out after padded practice
4. D’Ante Smith
As mentioned on the intro slide, not all of these players stood out in a positive way. For further example of that, look no further than rookie fourth-rounder D’Ante Smith, who had a rough day at right tackle while going against the starters.
You might be asking yourself, “Why was D’Ante Smith running with the ones on Tuesday?”
Well, Riley Reiff didn’t practice on Tuesday. On Monday, he limped off the field after the Germaine Pratt interception and the Bengals decided to play it safe with their hopeful right tackle of the 2021 season.
With Reiff out of the lineup, it was time for Smith to step into the right tackle role and see what he could provide. The result wasn’t promising, as Smith got pushed around by Sam Hubbard all afternoon long. It wasn’t pretty.
Sam Hubbard is giving rookie RT D'Ante Smith his "Welcome to the NFL" day.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) August 3, 2021
Sam Hubbard is having a monster day in one-on-one matchups against D’Ante Smith at right tackle.
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) August 3, 2021
The defensive line clearly has the edge on the first day in pads. The offensive line just committed a false start.
While Smith struggled mightily, he’s a rookie and hopefully won’t see the starting lineup any time soon. This performance showed that he’s nowhere near ready to be a starter and considering he was a Day 3 draft choice, that’s okay. Reiff had a day off to rest after that awkward play yesterday and hopefully, he’s able to return to the starting lineup shortly.