Usage / Role
87%
Featured defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2019-2021Penn State
Brandon Smith
LB • 6'3" • 244 lbs • Louisa, VA, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Brandon Smith shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 43.9 disruption score.
Impact Production
100
Top-tier box-score impact for a linebacker
lowelite
Reliability
79
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
95
Blue-chip, NFL-level ceiling
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2021 Regular Season · Penn State
192021
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 3
- Program Path
- Penn State
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Maryland
Player Story
Brandon Smith built his college career from 2019 through 2021 as a linebacker from Louisa, VA wearing No. 12, spending time with Penn State. The clearest part of Brandon Smith's career was his defensive production:...
Read the story5★
- Committed To
- Penn State
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2019
NFL Draft
- Draft Year
- 2022
- Selection
- Round 4 · Pick 15
- Overall
- No. 120
- NFL Team
- Carolina Panthers
Brandon Smith, LB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2021 Regular Season · Penn State. Brandon Smith shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 43.9 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 131
- TFL
- 19
- Sacks
- 4
- QB hurries
- 5
- Passes defended
- 6
Quick Answers
Brandon Smith quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Penn State · LB
- Career Tackles
- 131
- Tracked sample
- 3 unique seasons · 3 entries · 27 games
- Best season
- 2021 Regular Season · Penn State
- Top game
- Maryland
- Recruit profile
- 5-star · Louisa County · Penn State
- High school pipeline
- Louisa County · 4 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- NFL Draft
- 2022 · Round 4 · Pick 15 · Carolina Panthers
- Latest roster
- No. 12 · Sophomore
- 2021 Tackles rank
- 81 tackles · LB 124th (top 10%) · Big Ten 20th (top 4%) · National 173rd (top 3%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Regular Season | Penn State | 7 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | 0 | 16.9 |
| 2020 Regular Season | Penn State | 8 | 37 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 67 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Penn State | 12 | 81 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 68 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Brandon Smith
Brandon Smith played LB for Penn State. Across 3 tracked seasons, Brandon Smith recorded 131 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2021 with Penn State.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2021 Regular Season
Penn State paired 19 primary output with 43.9 efficiency.
Supporting note
2021 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 43.9 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value stayed steady
2021 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Maryland
Win with 4.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. 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.
2021 Regular Season · Penn State
Games
12
Havoc Plays / G
1.6
Efficiency
43.9
Usage
11.2
Consistency
34.9
Best Game by takeover score
Maryland
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
Hover over a point
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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. Wisconsin: 1. Ball State: 0. Auburn: 3. Villanova: 2. Indiana: 4. Iowa: 0. Illinois: 3. Ohio State: 0. Maryland: 4.5. Michigan: 1. Rutgers: 0.5. Michigan State: 0
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.
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High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Wisconsin: 8 by 43.3. Ball State: 7 by 29.2. Auburn: 10 by 71.7. Villanova: 2 by 28.3. Indiana: 5 by 60.8. Iowa: 5 by 20.8. Illinois: 7 by 59.2. Ohio State: 8 by 33.3. Maryland: 9 by 82.5. Michigan: 10 by 51.7. Rutgers: 5 by 25.8. Michigan State: 5 by 20.8
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins2.1 · Games = 7 · +1.3 vs Losses
Losses0.8 · Games = 5 · -1.3 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
Maryland
Best efficiency game
82.5 vs Maryland
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 11/27 | @ Michigan State | L 27-30 | 5 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/20 | vs Rutgers | W 28-0 | 5 | 1 | — | 0.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/13 | vs Michigan10+ tackles | L 17-21 | 10 | 4 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 11/6 | @ MarylandSplash game | W 31-14 | 9 | 6 | — | 2.50 | 0 | — | 2 | — | — |
| Sat 10/30 | @ Ohio State | L 24-33 | 8 | 4 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/23 | vs IllinoisSplash game | L 18-20 | 7 | 5 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/9 | @ Iowa | L 20-23 | 5 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/2 | vs IndianaSplash game | W 24-0 | 5 | 2 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 9/25 | vs VillanovaSplash game | W 38-17 | 2 | 2 | — | 2 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/18 | vs Auburn10+ tackles · Splash game | W 28-20 | 10 | 6 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 9/11 | vs Ball State | W 44-13 | 7 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/4 | @ Wisconsin | W 16-10 | 8 | 6 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Brandon Smith story
Brandon Smith built his college career from 2019 through 2021 as a linebacker from Louisa, VA wearing No. 12, spending time with Penn State. The clearest part of Brandon Smith's career was his defensive production: 131 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, and 1 interception across 27 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2021 with Penn State. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.
Defensive careers can be hard to read from one number, but Brandon Smith's production has multiple signals. With 27 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Penn State.
The arc is straightforward: Brandon Smith moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Penn State
2019-2021
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
201920202021
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Regular Season | Penn State | 3 | 12 | 3 | — |
| 2020 Regular Season | Penn State | 13 | 35.5 | 12.3 | 10 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Penn State | 19 | 43.9 | 11.2 | 6 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
@ Maryland
Week 10 · W 31-14 · Conference game
Win with 4.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
4.5
Havoc Plays
94.2 takeover
4.5 disruption/tackle impact with 94.2 takeover score.
#2
vs Illinois
Week 16 · W 56-21 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
87.8 takeover
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 87.8 takeover score.
#3
vs Indiana
Week 5 · W 24-0 · Conference game
4
Havoc Plays
83.2 takeover
Win with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
4 disruption/tackle impact with 83.2 takeover score.
#4
vs Auburn
Week 3 · W 28-20
3
Havoc Plays
79.5 takeover
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 79.5 takeover score.
#5
vs Ohio State
Week 9 · L 25-38 · Conference game
2.5
Havoc Plays
76.4 takeover
Loss with 2.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2.5 disruption/tackle impact with 76.4 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2021 Regular Season · Penn State
19 primary output · 43.9 efficiency · 11.2 usage
68
#2
2020 Regular Season · Penn State
67
13 primary · 35.5 efficiency · 12.3 usage
#3
2019 Regular Season · Penn State
16.9
3 primary · 12 efficiency · 3 usage
Milestones
9
Impact games
9
Splash games
2
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Brandon Smith
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