Five things you did not know about the Raiders’ Sean Smith

Five new facts about Oakland Raiders corner Sean Smith.

Oakland Raiders corner Sean Smith spent most of the offseason as one of the team’s prize free agency acquisitions.

Now, he is one of the team’s biggest reasons for optimism, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Here are a few things you did not know about the new Raiders corner and converted Kansas City Chiefs player.

Smith attends quarterback meetings

When Smith is not in his own meeting, the corner sits in quarterback meetings.

“He’ll come in the quarterback room when he doesn’t have a meeting and sit in,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. “He’ll ask questions, and we’ll bounce ideas off each other. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a defensive back do that.

Carr also said Smith is one of the smartest defensive players he has ever been around.

Smith likes talking smack with quarterbacks

Smith and Carr developed a relationship over the past two years, because of trash talk during divisional games.

The corner thought receivers would talk more trash in the pros like they do in college. He found out that was not the case as most receivers just want to do their job.

Smith said about trash talking quarterbacks:

“So I talk to the quarterbacks. They have the ball anyway. I used to always talk to D.C. Between plays, yelling at him, ‘Come at me! Let’s do this!’ We used to go back and forth.”

Smith admired Nnamdi Asomugha

The Raiders big corner wearing 21 watched another famous Raider who wore 21 at the corner position.

“At that time, Nnamdi Asomugha was hot,” Smith said. “He was the big corner. There weren’t a lot of big cornerbacks at that time; everyone wanted that next Nnamdi, a corner over 6-feet tall. … I used to always watch Nnamdi, seeing how he played and trying to imitate that on the field.”

Now, Smith is the biggest the corner in the league. He has an inch and ten pounds over Asomugha.

Tony Sparano helped out Smith

Another infamous Raider helped Smith on his journey. The ex-Raiders interim coach held the same position with the Dolphins during Smith’s first few seasons.

Smith got a benching his second year, which helped him adjust to the hard work of the NFL.

“They were patient with me, and worked with me to become the player I am today,” Smith said about Sparano and then secondary coach Todd Bowles. “They would call plays out before they happened, and taught me how to watch film.”

Now, Smith watches a ton of film. Sparano and Bowles helped him.

Smith played running back before the pros

Smith had 2,500 all-purpose yards for Blair-Pasadena football team during his senior year of high school.

Still, Smith did not want to play running back.

“I never had any intention of playing running back at Utah. That just wasn’t the position for me,” Smith said. “I begged and pleaded if I could move to receiver.”

Eventually, he moved to defense after getting into an argument with a position coach at Utah.

Smith wanted to play safety, but he was not a great tackler. Hence, he tried corner. The rest is history.