Many older Chicago Bears fans probably remember the name Bobby Wade. He was a 5th round pick of the team in 2003 out of Arizona. His best offensive season came in 2004, when he had 481 yards for an injury-riddled team. Then, in 2005, he had 317 punt return yards, including a touchdown against Detroit. He was eventually cut later that season. From there, he bounced around the league with four different teams before finally stepping away in 2010. Nobody at the time ever would’ve thought he’d cross paths with somebody like Steve Smith.
The former Pro Bowl wide receiver has established himself as a top analyst, especially going into the draft. He focuses on his specialty of evaluating receivers, which was the case again this year. However, he stirred the pot recently when he revealed his personal rankings, which had Texas’ Matthew Golden at #1, overtaking consensus favorite Tetairoa McMillan. Smith explained his reasoning.
“I think he (McMillan) leaves a lot of plays on the field. I don’t see his route tree being very elaborate. Good player, not a great player.”
One person took exception to that: Wade. He was McMillan’s wide receiver coach last season and had something to say about Smith’s comments.
“I just don’t think he’s watched enough film on T-Mac and that’s just about it…I would tell him to watch more film and really digest it.”
Anybody familiar with Smith knows that you never trash-talk him unless you’re expecting a war. That is exactly what Wade got. Smith replied shortly after and didn’t hold back.
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As always, Steve Smith is vicious.
There was probably no better trash-talker in professional football during his era. He even kept doing it after he retired. Everybody saw the infamous clip of him speaking to Cam Newton about taking D.J. Moore off of his fantasy team, with Moore standing right next to them. He has zero filter and when he feels disrespected, he’ll come back firing with everything he has. What makes it especially harsh for Wade is nothing Steve Smith said was false. Every barb had an element of truth behind it. There are legitimate questions about his route-running ability and his overall lack of attention to detail. This could be why he ends up going later than many project. While Wade’s influence over that is somewhat overblown, it’s still erroneous to say Smith didn’t do his homework.
