Carter Smith OT Indiana |
NFL Draft Profile & Scouting Report

Scouting Report: Weaknesses

• Leaner build at 308 with average length; power rushers can press his chest.
• Worst night of the season came last, two sacks allowed in the title game against Miami.
• One scheme, one line coach, one system; the projection assumes the polish travels.

Scouting Report: Summary

The resume writes itself: sixteen starts at left tackle, a national championship, the conference's lineman-of-the-year trophy, and the best pass-blocking tape in the class on over a thousand snaps. Smith allowed nine pressures all season protecting Indiana's title run, winning with quick, repeatable sets, disciplined hands and the kind of balance that keeps a tackle off the ground and out of trouble. The movement skills hold up on climbs and screens, and the tape rarely shows the same mistake twice.

Two honest reservations survive contact with the film. He plays at 308 with average length, and the rare nights things went wrong came against heavy hands, most visibly the title game itself, when Miami's front got into his frame for two sacks on his worst graded night of the year. And the entire body of work comes from one scheme and one demanding line coach, so part of the projection is trusting that the technique, not the system, is the engine.

Those are quibbles against a first-round file. Tackles who protect at this level this young, in a sixteen-game season against playoff competition, are the scarcest commodity in the sport, and his return to Bloomington for 2026 only adds tape to a case that is largely closed. He projects as a year-one starting left tackle with Pro Bowl upside if the anchor thickens, the cleanest offensive line evaluation in this class.