Usage / Role
100%
Featured defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2015-2018Northern Illinois
Sutton Smith
DE • 6'1" • 237 lbs • Saint Charles, MO, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Sutton Smith shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 42.7 disruption score.
Impact Production
100
Top-tier box-score impact for an edge defender
lowelite
Reliability
79
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
91
Elite ceiling indicators
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2017 Postseason · Northern Illinois
1516171718
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 4
- Program Path
- Northern Illinois
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Kent State
Player Story
Sutton Smith built his college career from 2015 through 2018 as a defensive end from Saint Charles, MO wearing No. 15, spending time with Northern Illinois. The clearest part of Sutton Smith's career was his...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Northern Illinois
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2015
NFL Draft
- Draft Year
- 2019
- Selection
- Round 6 · Pick 2
- Overall
- No. 175
- NFL Team
- Pittsburgh Steelers
Sutton Smith, DE. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2017 Postseason · Northern Illinois. Sutton Smith shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 42.7 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 123
- TFL
- 52
- Sacks
- 27
- QB hurries
- 17
- Passes defended
- 3
- Touchdowns
- 1
Quick Answers
Sutton Smith quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Northern Illinois · DE
- Career Tackles
- 123
- Tracked sample
- 4 unique seasons · 5 entries · 35 games
- Best season
- 2017 Postseason · Northern Illinois
- Top game
- Kent State
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Francis Howell · Northern Illinois
- High school pipeline
- Francis Howell · 6 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- NFL Draft
- 2019 · Round 6 · Pick 2 · Pittsburgh Steelers
- Latest roster
- No. 15 · Junior
- 2018 Tackles rank
- 45 tackles · DE 43rd (top 13%) · Mid-American 69th (top 13%) · National 790th (top 14%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| 2016 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 10 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | - | 0 | 19 |
| 2017 Postseason | Northern Illinois | 13 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 2 | - | 0 | 80 |
| 2017 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 13 | 56 | 29 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 80 |
| 2018 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 12 | 45 | 20 | 12 | 6 | - | 1 | 67.6 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Sutton Smith
Sutton Smith played DE for Northern Illinois. Across 4 tracked seasons, Sutton Smith recorded 29 passing yards, -1 rushing yards, and 123 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2018 with Northern Illinois.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2017 Postseason
Northern Illinois paired 55 primary output with 55.6 efficiency.
Supporting note
2018 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 42.7 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value cooled off
2018 Regular Season fell back from the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Western Michigan
Loss with backfield disruption leading the way. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2018 Regular Season · Northern Illinois
Games
12
Havoc Plays / G
3.2
Efficiency
42.7
Usage
17
Consistency
58.7
Best Game by takeover score
Western Michigan
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
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Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. Iowa: 2. Utah: 6.5. Central Michigan: 3. Florida State: 3. Eastern Michigan: 3. Ball State: 2. Ohio: 4.5. BYU: 0. Akron: 2. Toledo: 0. Miami (OH): 3. Western Michigan: 9
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Iowa: 5 by 40.8. Utah: 8 by 83.3. Central Michigan: 3 by 42.5. Florida State: 4 by 46.7. Eastern Michigan: 4 by 46.7. Ball State: 0 by 20. Ohio: 5 by 65.8. BYU: 1 by 4.2. Akron: 5 by 40.8. Miami (OH): 3 by 42.5. Western Michigan: 7 by 79.2
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins2.1 · Games = 7 · -2.6 vs Losses
Losses4.7 · Games = 5 · +2.6 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
12 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
Western Michigan
Best efficiency game
83.3 vs Utah
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 11/21 | @ Western Michigan2+ sacks · Splash game | L 21-28 | 7 | 7 | — | 5 | 4 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Thu 11/15 | vs Miami (OH)Splash game | L 7-13 | 3 | 3 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Thu 11/8 | vs Toledo | W 38-15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Thu 11/1 | @ AkronSplash game | W 36-26 | 5 | 2 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/27 | @ BYU | W 7-6 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/13 | vs Ohio2+ sacks · Splash game | W 24-21 | 5 | 4 | — | 2.50 | 2 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/6 | @ Ball StateSplash game | W 24-16 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/29 | @ Eastern MichiganSplash game | W 26-23 | 4 | 2 | — | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/22 | @ Florida StateSplash game | L 19-37 | 4 | 2 | — | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/15 | vs Central MichiganSplash game | W 24-16 | 3 | 2 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/8 | vs Utah2+ sacks · Splash game | L 6-17 | 8 | 6 | — | 4.50 | 2 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/1 | @ IowaSplash game | L 7-33 | 5 | 4 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Sutton Smith story
Sutton Smith built his college career from 2015 through 2018 as a defensive end from Saint Charles, MO wearing No. 15, spending time with Northern Illinois. The clearest part of Sutton Smith's career was his defensive production: 123 tackles, 52 tackles for loss, 27 sacks, and 3 passes defended across 35 career games in the available record. His career also includes 29 passing yards and 51 return yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. That gives Sutton Smith's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Northern Illinois
2015-2018
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
20152016201720172018
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2016 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 6 | 12.3 | 4.7 | 6 |
| 2017 Postseason | Northern Illinois | 55 | 55.6 | 17.5 | 49 |
| 2017 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 55 | 55.6 | 17.5 | 0 |
| 2018 Regular Season | Northern Illinois | 38 | 42.7 | 17 | -17 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Kent State
Week 6 · W 24-3 · Conference game
Win with backfield disruption leading the way.
7
Havoc Plays
93.1 takeover
7 disruption/tackle impact with 93.1 takeover score.
#2
@ Western Michigan
Week 13 · L 21-28 · Conference game
9
Havoc Plays
93.1 takeover
Loss with backfield disruption leading the way.
9 disruption/tackle impact with 93.1 takeover score.
#3
vs Western Michigan
Week 12 · W 35-31 · Conference game
8
Havoc Plays
91.7 takeover
Win with backfield disruption leading the way.
8 disruption/tackle impact with 91.7 takeover score.
#4
@ Nebraska
Week 3 · W 21-17
7
Havoc Plays
87.5 takeover
Win with backfield disruption leading the way.
7 disruption/tackle impact with 87.5 takeover score.
#5
vs Utah
Week 2 · L 6-17
6.5
Havoc Plays
85.2 takeover
Loss with backfield disruption leading the way.
6.5 disruption/tackle impact with 85.2 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2017 Postseason · Northern Illinois
55 primary output · 55.6 efficiency · 17.5 usage
80
#2
2017 Regular Season · Northern Illinois
80
55 primary · 55.6 efficiency · 17.5 usage
#3
2018 Regular Season · Northern Illinois
67.6
38 primary · 42.7 efficiency · 17 usage
Milestones
16
Impact games
23
Splash games
1
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
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