South Carolina held its annual pro day for prospective NFL players on Monday. All 32 teams made the trek to Columbia to check out the Gamecocks’ prospects for the 2023 NFL draft.
The Gamecocks have several draft-worthy players who went through testing. Most notable is CB Cam Smith, who projects as a top 50 overall talent.
2023 NFL Draft: Cam Smith scouting report
Smith weighed in three pounds heavier on Monday than he did at the NFL Scouting Combine. The jump from 180 pounds to 183 might not seem like much, but NFL teams wanted Smith to get bigger to become more comfortable with his outlook. Smith didn’t do any of the athletic metric testing but did work with the other DBs in position drills on the field.
Getting bigger is important for Smith, who mostly played the slot CB role at South Carolina.
“A lot of people value that inside position, but I need to get bigger because most of the time you’re more of a linebacker, not really a nickel,” Smith said via Emily Adams of the Greenville News. “I’m eating healthy options, but really a load of it. I do some shakes — I get two shakes a day that are like 1,300 calories so each day I’m getting like a pound off of that.”
Fellow CB Darius Rush also chose to stand on his NFL Scouting Combine testing numbers. Rush clocked a 4.36 40-yard dash time at the combine. He is generally projected in the draft’s middle rounds.
Defensive tackle Zacch Pickens, a Senior Bowl standout, also elected not to try and improve upon his combine testing. Pickens weighed in at 298 pounds, up seven from his time in Indianapolis two weeks ago. That’s an important jump for a player who has questions about his ability to anchor on the defensive interior.
