[Editor's note: Promoted from the FanPosts.] -- Torrey Smith has been a hot-button topic around BGN since his signing back in March, and for good reason. Smith's career has been somewhat of a roller coaster since he entered the league. After 4 fantastic seasons in Baltimore, Smith followed his former teammate Anquan Boldin to San Francisco with one shared goal: win another Super Bowl. At the time, Smith was considered one of the best available free agent wide outs and excitement was high in the Bay Area. Now here we are, 2 short years later, Smith has been run out of San Francisco and the Eagles are tasked with resuscitating Smith's dying career. Depending on who you talk to, you will find a myriad of answers to this simple question: Is Torrey Smith a good wide receiver? Ravens fans will tell you his departure was the beginning of the end in Baltimore. 49ers fans will laugh at you. Eagles fans will blame everything on Chip Kelly and Colin Kaepernick and they tell you that 2017 will be the year Smith returns to form.

The Humble Beginnings (Before 2011)

Torrey Smith was born to Monica Jenkins, a 16-year-old single mother, and right from the gate times were tough. Smith was born 3 months early with meningitis and jaundice, and lived in an incubator for the first 10 months of his life. As the oldest sibling, Smith was quickly deemed the "man of the house" by the time he was just four years. Smith quickly learned that if he wasn't there to provide and protect his family, they might not make it. Smith frequently watched his mother get beaten, threatened and almost killed on many occasions. Amazingly, Smith was able to endure his horrific childhood and maintain his positive attitude throughout.

"I wouldn't change anything in my childhood for the better," Torrey says. "I like every struggle I have been through. I have learned from it. It helped make me a better person. It is tough for me to break mentally."

By the time Smith was in high school he was being scouted as both a baseball player and a football player. Scouts thought he had professional potential in baseball, but he ultimately chose football, against his mother's advice. "I used to always tell him: 'Boy, you running over top of those kids because you ain't got no competition. You wait to we get back here and the brothers are here, I'm going to see what you do then" Jenkins said. "When he got back here and dominated, I put my hands up. I said, 'You're the man." In High school, Smith was not only the quarterback, but also a starting defensive back and the team's kick returner.

Smith ended up being the first person in his family to attend college, and chose Maryland to be close to home, where his Mother was on probation for a violent altercation with her daughter-in-law. While his mother was in jail, Smith would leave college on the weekends to come home and help take care of his, now 6, younger siblings. Jenkins ultimately plead guilty and was sentenced to probation which allowed her to see every one of her eldest son's home games. Although Smith only played football in College for three years, thanks to a freshman redshirt season, he managed to complete his degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Smith could have declared for draft eligibility after his redshirt sophomore year, but he wanted to increase his draft stock & get his diploma, a feat that never seemed possible when he was a young boy. Although he excelled as a special teamer his first two years, Smith was just breaking onto the scene as a wide out his Junior year with over 1000 yards and 12 touchdowns but financial instability forced him to declare for the draft instead of sticking around for a "prove-it" final year. Once again, Torrey took the selfless route and declared for the draft.

The Baltimore Years (2011-2014)

Smith's ability to be a threat was well documented during his time with the Terrapins averaging 14.6 yards/reception through 152 catches and 24.3 yards/return through 123 returns. With the 58th selection in the 2011 draft, the Baltimore Ravens selected Smith out of Maryland. In his first two professional games, Smith caught a whopping 0 passes for 0 yards causing fans and critics alike to question the scouting ability of the Ravens front office (shout out Joe Douglas). As seems to be a trend with the ever optimistic young man, Smith came out and silenced his haters by putting 6 points on the scoreboard with each of his first 3 career receptions.

Smith ultimately finished his rookie season with 841 yards on 50 receptions and 7 touchdowns. He was able to ease his way into early career success playing next to Anquan Boldin and it certainly didn't hurt Smith playing on an offense that featured a top 10 rushing attack with the vicious punch of Ray Rice at the helm. As expected, Torrey Smith's straight line speed was a welcomed addition to the Baltimore offense. Smith finished his rookie campaign 13th in the league with 16.8 yards/reception, but demonstrated the same bad trait that haunted him in college; he has trouble hauling in passes. Smith doesn't have the best hands or the most impressive catch radius and this was on display with a fairly lousy 52.6 catch percentage during his rookie year.

Just as things were starting to look up for the promising young wide out, Torrey Smith received news that his younger brother Tevin Jones had passed away in a motorcycle accident just 20 hours before the Ravens were scheduled to host the Patriots in a 2012 week 3 match up. After spending the beginning of the day with his mourning family, Smith suited up and played what would end up being his most impressive performance of the year with 127 yards and 2 touchdowns on 6 catches. All in all, 2012 was more of the same for Smith; his efficiency increased to a fantastic 17.4 yards/rec but his catch percentage dropped down to 44.5%.

With the departure of teammate Anquan Boldin, Smith stepped up his game big time in 2013 to the tune of 1128 yards on 65 receptions paired with 4 touchdowns. His 17.4 yards per reception was good for 5th in the league, but his 47.4 completion percentage was still dreadful. His success was due to a high number of targets paired with his explosive playmaking ability and often unrivaled deep speed. While the Ravens won the super bowl in 2013, Smith was fairly quiet with only 11 catches out of 25 targets spread out over the 4 games. 2 months later, Smith announced the birth of his son Torrey Jeremiah Smith.

With the addition of Steve Smith Sr. to the Ravens, Torrey Smith's role on the offense was diminished resulting in arguably Smith's worst season to date as a professional. Smith finished 2014 with 767 yards on 49 receptions, both career lows, good for 11 touchdowns, which was a career high. Up until this point in Smith's career, it is hard to argue that is anything but a solid wide out. He certainly had his flaws, but his average stat line of 53-898-7.5 is worthy of a WR2 spot in the NFL.

San Fran's New Man (2015-2016)

In the spring of 2015, Anquan Boldin helped convince his former teammate to sign with the 49ers. Smith used both the team's recent success and the team's high potential for more of it as reasons for signing with San Francisco.

"This is one of those few places, and I came from one as well. I'm glad to be here, and I'll get to work this offseason to hopefully get back to the big game."

Torrey Smith finished his first year in the Bay Area with a bleak 33 receptions for 663 yards and 4 touchdowns, all career lows. Smith's 20.1 yards per reception was not only a career high, but he also was 1st among qualified wide outs in 2015. It is difficult to blame this poor season entirely on Smith, as he had a combination of Kaepernick (78.5 QB Rating) & Gabbert (86.2) throwing to him. If this wasn't enough, Torrey was also working with no rushing attack and a miserable defense. Head coach Jim Tomsula, who was just hired before the season, was relieved of his duties after an abysmal 5-11 showing.

In attempt to offset the offensive ineptitude, the 49ers front office brought in the Offensive Guru, Chip Kelly, as the head coach for 2016. Through the first four games of 2016, Smith had only 9 catches. The team was 1-3 & the passing offense was ranked 32nd in the league. When asked of his woes Smith, who always seems to remain positive, had the following to say:

"I look at it: I'm only 27 years old, I'm young, I'm still very fast. I'm still getting open," Smith added. "I've just got to make plays when the ball comes my way, and I will."

Throughout the 2016 season, both Chip Kelly and Blane Gabbert blamed Smith's lack of production on themselves. Smith finished the season with far and away his worse season as a professional. Smith's stat sheet last year will show you career lows in every major statistic for a wide receiver, including games played (123) & yards per reception (13.4). Just like 2015, Smith's lack of production is easily blamed on a carousel of lousy quarterbacks, a team devoid of talent & a new coach forcing a new system on the young offense.

Fly Torrey Fly (Present)

When Torrey Smith was released by the 49ers on March 7th, the veteran wide out said all of the right things. He was quick to thank the organization for the opportunity and friendships he made. He apologized to the fans for not giving them a true chance to see him at his best. He wished luck to his former teammates and promised the organization was headed in the right direction.

When the Eagles called Smiths agent, one would assume it was a match made in heaven. The Eagles have sorely lacked any semblance of a deep threat since infamous gang leader DeSean Jackson's sudden departure. On the other side of the equation, Smith has missed the aggressive arm of Joe Flacco & the opportunities that it brought him.

The common theme among optimistic Eagles fans since Smith's arrival is that he simply had no chance to succeed in San Fran. He played under poor coaching on a team with no help. He played with quarterbacks who couldn't air it out. Here is the problem with this theory, though: Colin Kaepernick was a better quarterback in 2016 than Carson Wentz was. Carson finished the year with a paltry 79.3 QB rating compared to Kaepernick, who finished with a much more reasonable 90.7. While QB rating is hardly the end all be all, it is a pretty accurate assessment of how good a quarterback performed, especially over an entire season sample size. Here are their stats from last year:

Raw 2016 Stats: GS Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Lng Y/A AY/A Y/C Y/G Rate QBR Sk Carson Wentz 16 379 607 62.4 3782 16 14 73 6.2 5.7 10 236.4 79.3 52.8 33 C. Kaepernick 11 196 331 59.2 2241 16 4 65 6.8 7.2 11.4 186.8 90.7 55.2 36

Now, I am not here to argue that Carson is not a good quarterback. There are dozens of reasons why his numbers are not as good as they should be. I am here, however, to tell you that Kaepernick was not that bad of a quarterback. What should stick out to you right away is that Carson threw significantly more passes than Kaep did, partially because he played 5 more games. To help account for this, I adjusted both sets of stats to show 14 games played, but kept all stat/game values the same. This led me to the following table:

Adjusted 2016 Stats: GS Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Lng Y/A AY/A Y/C Y/G Rate QBR Sk Carson Wentz 14 320 512 62.4 3191 14 12 73 6.2 5.7 10 236.4 79.3 52.8 28 C. Kaepernick 14 241 406 59.2 2750 20 5 65 6.8 7.2 11.4 186.8 90.7 55.2 44

Carson Wentz

Completion Percentage

Yards

Longest Pass

Yards per Completion

Yards per Game

Sacks

Colin Kaepernick

Touchdowns

Interceptions

Yards per Attempt

Adjusted Yards per Attempt

Yards per Completion

Quarterback Rating

QBR

What you can see here, is that Wentz out performed Kaepernick in most cumulative stats, due to the Eagles trying to throw their way to victory all season, but Kaepernick was the better quarterback in almost every meaningful statistic. He got more yards per attempt. His touchdown to interception ratio was much, much, much higher than that of Wentz. Kapernick was also sacked significantly more, which is a quick way to determine his offensive line was worse than that of Wentz.

Now you might be thinking something along the lines of "well Wentz had no weapons to throw to & Kaepernick at least had Torrey Smith." Well this is simply not true.

Rk Tm Pos G Tgt Rec Ctch% Yds Y/R TD Lng R/G Y/G 25 Z. Ertz PHI TE 14 106 78 0.736 816 10.5 4 30 5.6 58.3 31 J. Matthews PHI WR 14 117 73 0.624 804 11 3 54 5.2 57.4 49 J. Kerley SFO WR 16 115 64 0.557 667 10.4 3 33 4 41.7 82 D. Sproles PHI RB 15 71 52 0.732 427 8.2 2 73 3.5 28.5 120 T. Burton PHI TE 15 60 37 0.617 327 8.8 1 32 2.5 21.8 124 Q. Patton SFO WR 14 63 37 0.587 408 11 0 45 2.6 29.1 125 N. Agholor PHI WR 15 69 36 0.522 365 10.1 2 40 2.4 24.3 126 D. Green-Beckham PHI WR 15 74 36 0.486 392 10.9 2 26 2.4 26.1 156 G. Celek SFO TE 16 50 29 0.58 350 12.1 3 31 1.8 21.9 157 S. Draughn SFO RB 16 39 29 0.744 263 9.1 2 29 1.8 16.4 167 C. Hyde SFO RB 13 33 27 0.818 163 6 3 19 2.1 12.5 174 V. McDonald SFO TE 11 45 24 0.533 391 16.3 4 75 2.2 35.5 198 T. Smith SFO WR 12 49 20 0.408 267 13.4 3 53 1.7 22.3

When you sort all qualified pass catchers by receptions, Torrey Smith comes up just shy of the 200 mark with 20 receptions on 49 targets. I cleaned this list up to show only Eagles and 49ers that had as many catches as Smith or above. Interestingly enough, this list shows 13 players. 6 Eagles & 6 49ers were ahead of Smith. This includes 3 Running Backs and 4 Tight Ends. This includes Nelson Agholor, who almost doubled Smith's number of receptions. Obviously "completions" is not the most meaningful statistic in the world, but it gives you a decent idea of who the quarterback was able to get the ball to. One other quick observation from the table above is that Torrey Smith comes in 13th place out of 13 players with a 40.8 catch percentage. Something that has been haunting him his entire playing career.

One thing has become increasingly clearer as I have read through these statistics. Torrey Smith hampered Colin Kaepernick more than Colin Kaepernick hampered Torrey Smith.

Conclusion

If Torrey Smith's past is any indication of his future, I think the following statements will be true in 2017:

Torrey Smith will have a better season in 2017 than he did in 2016 or 2015

I mean... how could he not. He almost certainly will see increased targets, and if history is any indication, increased targets mean increased productivity. Torrey has proven to be a fantastic deep threat, and that will not change. He will catch multiple home run passes, and he will give us Eagles fans many moments of happiness.

Torrey Smith will drop the most balls on the team in 2017

Unfortunately, for every 60-yard touchdown Smith will haul in, there will be a pathetic drop. Just like Nelson Agholor has done for 2 years, Smith will drive us nuts frequently.

Torrey Smith will be a fantastic teammate, a fantastic citizen, and simply a fantastic human

It is hard to not cheer for this guy. I will be cheering my ass off for him, and I find some of the situations he has persevered to be truly heroic, as I know I would not have stood a chance. I am proud to have him on this team and I truly wish him the best. No one should ever face the adversity Torrey Smith has faced, and he should be extremely proud of everything he has accomplished to this point.

At the end of the day, I think Smith will be a good signing, but mostly for lack of better options. At best, Smith is the 4th best receiving option on this team right now for Wentz, and I think a lot of Eagles fans will be ultimately let down. At worst, 2016 Smith reemerges and he gets ran out of town, and likely out of the NFL. It's up to you, Torrey. I wish you the best of luck.