Smith got Burrow’s phone number from the coaches, texted him Monday night and they talked Tuesday morning. Even though Smith thought playing at Alabama would help his career more than staying home at LSU, he couldn’t take his eyes off the team he grew up following. Particularly the one in his rookie year in the league when Burrow and high-school rival Ja’Marr Chase led LSU to the national title.
“Once he got into the NFL, he’s been outstanding. The type of person, type of leader he is,” Smith said. “I don’t know Joe personally. I talked to him on the phone a little bit, but I feel like I already know him just watching him from afar. He told me he was fired up to have me out there and how much I’ll love the culture and if I have any questions, just let him know and he’s there for me.”
Smith is used to being in the middle of a stockpile of massive weaponry. At Alabama, his quarterback was Tua Tagovailoa and the wide receivers were Jerry Jeudy, DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle and Henry Ruggs III, first-round picks all. When the Vikings took Smith in the second round, he saw juggernauts in Minnesota, too, with wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. He mulled re-joining Tagovailoa and Waddle in Miami, but he also has a friendship with Chase.
They both played in New Orleans’ Catholic League, Smith at Brother Martin and Chase a year behind him at Archbishop Rummel.
“We knew each other from playing against each other and the year he came out in the draft we worked out together some,” Smith said. “He came over to my house a few times and hung out and we caught some balls off the Jugs machine.”
The 6-2, 240-pound Smith is on the slighter side, but he can move. He had the fourth fastest 40-yard dash time in the tight end group at the 2019 scouting combine and Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell says he’ll make you miss.
“He’s great with the football in his hand. We found ways. Screens. On some of the keeper game, the movement game. We found ways to get him the ball,” said O’Connell Tuesday at the NFL spring meetings. “Once he has the ball in the open field, he’s very rarely going to get tackled by the first defender. He was having a great training camp and he had a little bit of a finger injury. It didn’t slow him down by any stretch because he was still out there working, getting acclimated in our offense.”
Smith, in the first year in O’Connell’s system, was working on a career year last season with 22 catches when he missed eight games with an ankle injury and had a gritty comeback to make three catches for 14 yards in the finale and one catch for a three-yard touchdown in the Vikings’ Wild Card loss to the Giants.