PHILADELPHIA -- Yes, we're about to compare Marcus Smith to Jevon Kearse. No, we're not deluded enough to think they're anywhere near the same player.
This is more about the way different teams and coaching staffs handle young players, and which is the best way to coax the most out of them. Smith and Kearse are merely relevant examples.
Both were first-round draft picks, so there's that. Kearse was taken 16th overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 1999 NFL draft. Jim Schwartz was a defensive assistant on Jeff Fisher's Tennessee staff that year.
Schwartz was there when Fisher and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams discussed the role of their first-round pick. Kearse was known as "The Freak" because he was a unique athlete -- a little small for a traditional defensive end, a little big for an outside linebacker.
"When I first went to Tennessee, we based out of a lot of 3-4 [alignment], but it probably came from just the personnel that we had," Schwartz said. "We drafted Jevon Kearse, and there was a lot of thought whether Jevon Kearse was going to be a 3-4 outside linebacker, whether he was going to be a defensive end. We decided to try to make it as simple as we could for him. Put him in one spot and just let him attack, and let him rush the passer and let him play the edge."
Kearse had 14.5 sacks as a rookie. If his coaches had decided to wedge him into an uncomfortable outside linebacker spot, asking him to drop into pass coverage and adhere to strict gap discipline, it's a fair bet that Kearse would not have had the impact he did.
It's a fair bet he would have been more like Marcus Smith.
Where the Titans coaches adjusted their scheme to get the most out of a first-round draft pick, the Philadelphia Eagles staff under Chip Kelly took the opposite approach. Bill Davis was going to run a 3-4 scheme with two-gap principles, and players were going to be acquired off that assembly line that churns out perfect prototypes for every position.
That assembly line doesn't exist, of course. Smith was drafted 26th overall out of Louisville, where he had been pretty good at getting to the passer. The 6-foot-3, 251-pound Smith registered 24 sacks during his career at Louisville.
In Philadelphia, Smith couldn't get on the field. He played in eight games as a rookie and 13 more in 2015. He never started a game. When he stood out at all, it was usually for an error, as when he was covering the San Francisco 49ers' Frank Gore in 2014 and gave up a 55-yard touchdown pass.
Smith is unlikely to be covering Pro Bowl running backs in Schwartz's scheme. He will be a defensive end, assigned to getting upfield and disrupting the offense, whether that means tackling a running back or pressuring a quarterback.
"I like it a lot," Smith said this week. "It's less responsibility. We have to key in on smaller things. I think it's very beneficial to all of us."
Smith is preparing for his third NFL season. He spent the first two looking and feeling out of place. It's not as if Schwartz is going to build his defense around Smith, but at least there is consideration given to putting players into positions where they can be effective.
"It's a coach's job to make a complex game simple for the players," Schwartz said. "It's our job to make it where they can digest it."
Said Smith: "Being a defensive lineman, that's really what you want. You don't want to think too much. You want to get to the ball, make plays, and that's essentially what we've been doing. It's a great feeling. Coach [Schwartz] told me, 'We're going to tailor what we do to what your game is."
That approach worked with Kearse, who went to three Pro Bowls and amassed 74 sacks in an 11-year career that included four seasons in Philadelphia.
Will it work as well for Smith? It's impossible to say after a few minicamp practices.
"This is a scheme that greatly limits what he's asked to do," Schwartz said. "Very easy in theory. Difficult in execution, but easy in theory. Should allow him to play fast, attack spots, give him a little bit less responsibility but hopefully allow him to make a greater impact.
"He's very athletic. He's got great size. He's done very well so far, but let's reserve judgment on any of these guys until we get pads on them."
We can say that other approach did not work for Smith. Wherever that assembly line is that stamps out prototypes for particular schemes, it didn't produce Smith.