Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith recently chatted with Mark Kriegel of FOX Sports, who asked the 2011 first-round pick about the draft process, how he stacked up against his peers, what Ray Lewis said to him over the weekend and which number he plans on wearing in Baltimore.
One thing we've learned about the Ravens' newest cornerback is that he has plenty of confidence. Smith thinks he is the best cornerback in this class, ahead of Patrick Peterson, who went fifth overall to the Cardinals, and Prince Amukamara, who went 19th to the Giants.
"No disrespect to Patrick Peterson and Prince Amukamara, but I just think I have better cover skills," said Smith, the 27th pick in the draft. "They get tested a lot, and that's for a reason. The other team sees something in their game that they want to attack, and me playing in the same league as Prince, we played the same teams and they didn't attack me the same. So why does that happen?"
Smith thought the Eagles would draft him at No. 23 because they spent a lot of time researching him, but he wasn't surprised he dropped to the Ravens. "Not even a little bit because of all of the concerns and the red flags that the media put out about me," he said. "Everyone got this bad misconception about me." Smith added that the Cardinals "ambushed" him with questions about his past during a pre-draft interview.
(It couldn't have been worse than what Dez Bryant got from the Dolphins last year.)
"I just want to prove everybody wrong, all of the naysayers," Smith said. "The only thing I can really do is make sure I'm always staying out of trouble and doing things the right way so nobody can say anything."
But Smith was happy to get selected by the Ravens. "I think I fit in perfectly over there," he said. And he was welcomed to the team by Ray Lewis, who called him on Saturday. "He just welcomed me and set me straight on how the team is going to be ran," he said. "He is the boss, as far as on the defense."
Smith said the Ravens gave him a jersey number (No. 22), but don't sprint to the neighborhood screen-printing shop just yet. He wants No. 21, which is currently worn by fellow cornerback Lardarius Webb. Smith told Kriegel he would give up $50,000 for it before scaling back his offer to $10,000. "That's a lot of money."
I can't see Webb giving up his number for that, so Smith better up the ante or pick a different number.