An in depth and complete scouting report and draft prospect profile of Georgia Nickel Tykee Smith for the NFL Draft.

Prospect: Tykee Smith

School: Georgia

Age: 22(23 on Draft Day)

Tykee Smith Measurables:

• Height: 5’10” (NFL Combine)
• Weight: 202 (NFL Combine)

• 40: 4.46 (NFL Combine)
• 10 Yard Split: 1.58 (NFL Combine)
• Vertical Jump: 36” (NFL Combine)
• Broad Jump: 10’ (NFL Combine)
• Other Notes:
  • Bad mis-jump by Tykee Smith on the back pedal and 45 break drill
  • Tyler Nubin, Tykee Smith, Sione Vaki, and Evan Williams also in contention for best gauntlet run 

Tape Watched: Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Senior Bowl

Prospect Grade: 70%

Projected Draft Day: Day 2, Fringe Day 1

Player Comparison: Brian Branch

Best Team Fits: Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings

Tykee Smith Player Summary:

The  Positives

• Aggressive block shedding that can get off pretty quick
• Very sound tackler
• Fluid hips
• Likes to jam and play with hands on when he’s pressed
• Disruptive blitzer
• Versatility
  • Georgia used him in a variety of ways
• Showed his ability to play Free Safety at the Senior Bowl. Seemed to have speed, reads, and discipline to play single high

The Negatives

• Would like to see him be a little more aggressive in backside pursuit at times
• Tykee converted from safety into Georgia’s Star(nickelback) role. His snap count was dependent on gameplan.
  • Against Missouri, he played maybe 50-60% of snaps(our guess, not calculated)
  • Against South Carolina, he played almost every snap
  • Against, Tennessee, he played almost every snap

Side Notes:

• Tykee probably isn’t going to blow anyone away in the athletic testing in Indy, but we suspect he will catch eyes in the positional drills
• While watching 2022 Georgia film, we noticed that Tykee played some OLB snaps for the Dawgs in the Tennessee game

Tykee Smith is small, but he is mighty. Tykee Smith transferred to Georgia at the end of the 2020 season. In 2020 at West Virginia he was a consensus All-American(his tier depended on the platform you looked at). He was part of the rotation of the secondary, but didn’t truly take a starting role until this season. He took over Georgia’s star role, which is one of the most important in their defense. In short, the Star has to cover like a corner and hit like a safety, he needs to be the best of both worlds. Smith took over that role from Javon Bullard who transitioned to safety, and absolutely killed it despite the variety of tasks assigned to him by the Georgia defensive staff. 

Updated 4/23/24:

• Combine numbers and notes added to measurable portion of profile 
• Comp changed from “Ceiling: Brian Branch; Floor: Logan Ryan” to “Brian Branch”
• Positives Added
  • Showed his ability to play Free Safety at the Senior Bowl. Seemed to have speed, reads, and discipline to play single high