College Football

Michigan Football: De'Veon Smith Picking Up NFL Draft Steam

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:30 a.m. ET

Fansided, Tyler Fenwick/FanSided via GBMWolverine

Former Michigan football running back De’Veon Smith is starting to pick up some serious steam ahead of the 2017 NFL Draft.

It seems like De’Veon Smith had a long career with Michigan football.

In that 2013 game against Ohio State—when Devin Gardner played on a fractured foot and the Wolverines came within a 2-point conversion of winning—Smith was Michigan’s leading rusher. He had seven carries for 57 yards, which was almost half of what he ended up with that season.

He followed up that performance by being a steady presence in Michigan’s backfield for the next three years, culminating in an 846-yard 2016 campaign in which he averaged 4.7 yards per carry and had 10 touchdowns.

Wolverines fans never seemed very happy with Smith, though. At least not for long. Because who wasn’t in love with him after this?

He was a largely underappreciated player in the offense for the better part of three seasons.

Now that he’s moved on to try to get a shot in the NFL, national scouts and analysts are getting a look at what Michigan fans failed to recognize for so long.

Andy Staples thinks Smith is a running back that could be plugged in right away, even though he won’t be going in the first round and probably won’t ever be mentioned in the class of Leonard Fournette, Dalvin Cook or Christian McCaffrey.

Inside The Pylon’s Shane Alexander was impressed with Smith on Wednesday.

Smith is going to be a nice addition for a team in the coming seasons, and if Staples is right in thinking that he could be plugged in right away, there’s a chance he could be making a splash in the league sooner rather than later.

Smith was heavily underappreciated by some fans during his time at Michigan, and I fear it had a lot to do with the fact that he never had a great offensive line in front of him. That could change at the next level, though, and Smith might be a legitimate NFL running back.