SANTA CLARA — Earlier this spring, Chip Kelly was milling around the 49ers’ facility on a Saturday. What he saw caught him off guard.
There stood Torrey Smith and a group of younger 49ers gathered around a tennis ball machine. Smith instructed his fellow wide receivers to run routes, track the tiny yellow ball in the air and haul in passes at all sorts of angles. Bruce Ellington, DeAndre Smelter and DiAndre Campbell were regular attendees.
“You can’t have a quarterback around all the time,” Smith explained after practice Tuesday. “It’s another way to work on your hand eye coordination.”
Call Smith the Roger Federer of the NFL. He swears by his tennis ball machine, practices with it at his house nearly every day in the offseason and then lugs it back to the facility once OTAs commence. Kids that live in his neighborhood come out on the streets to help him collect any balls that fly astray. His college wide receiver’s coach at Maryland, Lee Hull, introduced him to the unconventional training back in 2008, and Smith has used the tactic as a springboard to becoming one of the best deep threats in the NFL. Not many receivers track the ball better in the air than No. 82. Not many practice with tennis balls on the regular.
With Anquan Boldin now up in Detroit, the wide receiver’s room has become Smith’s leadership domain. The 27-year-old Smith is the de facto No. 1 receiver in San Francisco. He has 246 career receptions for 4,254 yards and 34 touchdowns; seven of the 49ers’ 11 other receivers haven’t even played a down in the NFL. Teammates have begun teasing him like he’s old man rivers.
But kidding aside, Smith is going to need some serious help at the position, which is one reason he’s taken on more of a leadership undertaking in 2016. This is Smith’s seventh NFL season, and it’ll be his first as the primary target. For the 49ers, and for Smith to succeed this season, the Ellington’s, Smelter’s and Campbell’s on this roster have to become more reliable players. Now a savvy veteran, Smith has taken it upon himself to galvanize his inexperienced teammates.
And the tennis ball machine is just the tip of the iceberg.
“The younger guys in that room kind of gravitate to him in terms of how he studies, how he watches film, how he takes notes, how he prepares for practice, how he recovers after practice,” Kelly said on Tuesday. “What his mindset is like in terms of being a professional and he’s one of the best I’ve ever been around in terms of his approach to the game in taking care of what he has to do to put himself in the best situation to make plays.”
Smith’s leadership can only go so far. With the pads now on in training camp and the preseason 12 days away, it’s put-up or shut up time for Smith’s compadres at wide receiver. The quarterback competition between Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick cannot be an excuse, either. This football team needs multiple receivers besides Smith to get open on a consistent basis.
“They are going to have their shot now,” Smith said. “It’s my responsibility to make sure I’m pushing our group and that we’re all ready to go.”