Arrowhead Pride
An in-depth look at Kansas City’s seventh-round pick.
With the 228th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs selected SMU running back Brashard Smith.
What can Smith bring to the Chiefs? Here’s what you need to know:
Smith hasn’t been playing running back for very long. Coming out of high school, Smith was a four-star receiving prospect who had interest from schools such as Alabama, LSU, Oregon, Penn State, and Michigan. Smith ended up playing at Miami, where he spent three seasons playing wide receiver.
Wide receiver wasn’t great for Smith. Over three seasons, he caught 69 passes, 770 yards, and four touchdowns. After three seasons, Smith transferred to SMU to play for head coach Rhett Lashlee, the offensive coordinator at Miami and recruited him. Lashlee recruited Smith to SMU, but with the idea of switching him to be a full-time running back.
Smith converted to running back last season and had great results. In 14 games, Smith finished with 235 carries, 1,332 rushing yards (5.7 yards per carry), and 14 touchdowns. Smith also had his best receiving season with 39 catches, 327 receiving yards, and four touchdowns. Smith made first-team All-ACC and was voted third-team All-American by the Associated Press.
Smith is a smaller running back coming from a slot background. He’s only 5’9” and 194 lbs. Smith’s athletic testing was interesting. His 4.39 40-yard dash and 1.54 10-yard split are elite times, but he didn’t do as well on vertical or broad jumps. This backs up some of what I see on film, but I was surprised his jumps weren’t better than that.
First, the biggest strength of Smith’s game is his speed in open space. While I expected Smith to be more explosive at the combine, I see where some of those concerns appear on film. Smith doesn’t necessarily hit the hole super fast or with a lot of burst.
However, once he gets past the second level, Smith’s long speed takes over, and he can fly by defenders. Smith takes a beat to get into first gear, but once he hits the third or fourth gear, he can sprint past defenders in open space.
Smith isn’t just fast but also creative with the ball. He moves like a joystick in space. He can cut, spin, or change directions at high speeds and not lose any acceleration. Running backs often have to stop or slow down to cut and make players miss, but Smith can do it at high speeds. Smith will have some incredible highlights in the open field.
With Smith’s receiving background, he is good out of the backfield. You would wish Smith had a deeper route tree than he showed, but I don’t see this as a real issue. The main value of Smith as a receiver is his potential to run wheel routes downfield or catch a pass in the flat and make someone miss. With running backs, I feel like people tend to overrate...
