Steelers Send Arthur Smith, Aaron Curry to UNC Pro Day

Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and linebackers coach Aaron Curry are in North Carolina for UNC Pro Day. Mike Kaye reported that Smith was at UNC Pro Day, just ten miles down the road from where he was earlier at Duke Pro Day. Meanwhile, Brooke Pryor noticed that Curry was at the Tar Heels facility.

Curry is there to watch linebacker Cedric Gray, and lead him through positional drills. A Senior Bowl invite, Gray has proven to be one of the more solid linebackers in the entire class. He is not the flashiest player in the world, but Gray has evident sideline-to-sideline speed and rarely gets beat to the flat with his anticipation skills and ability to recognize route concepts. He looks like a prototypical athletic, green dot linebacker that the modern NFL would love to have.

Coming into Senior Bowl week, one of the biggest knocks on him was his experience in zone coverage, and it was a feeling-out process. But you could tell that the more he did it, the more comfortable he became. Playing in Tampa 2 coverage during the game, Gray drifted back perfectly into the dig behind him and knocked the ball down. He kept his aggressive, downhill play style to complement that, too. Stock up for Gray from that process.

As for Smith, he is likely there to watch wide receiver Devontez Walker, not quarterback Drake Maye. Walker is a big-bodied threat who can quickly eat up ground and get downfield. That is another mid-round wide receiver to throw onto the Steelers board. Walker had trouble in Mobile consistently tracking the football, but his tape shows someone with rare athletic skills at the position. And with someone like Russell Wilson at the helm, Walker’s toughness at the catch point makes sense from a fit perspective in that offense.