During Sunday's telecast of the Baltimore Ravens' 23-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, CBS analyst Solomon Wilcots said Joe Flacco told him that Torrey Smith needed to continue working to get better on his underneath routes.
On Tuesday, Flacco clarified his comments on Smith, who has been the quarterback's best deep option for several seasons.
"I think most of what I said, what I said during training camp, was that in the past, a lot of those underneath things in the stop routes, on the sideline, things like that, they were the things that we probably struggled with a little bit," said Flacco, according to The Baltimore Sun. "But so far this year, they have been incredible. What I believe, what I probably said or was referring to, is Torrey is a 1,000-yard receiver and he's a 100-catch guy.
"And the thing that's going to get him to those 100 catches is going to be it's not going to be running by guys and catching home runs over the top and all the things that he does really, really well, because he has that talent. It's going to be those little things."
Smith fell a little behind the 100-catch pace on Sunday, managing just four receptions for 50 yards against Cincinnati. If this is the year Smith becomes a well-rounded All-Pro level receiver, the timing will be magnificent. His rookie contract is up after this season.
The latest "Around The NFL Podcast" covers the Falcons' impressive offense, RGIII's struggles and recaps all Sunday's Week 1 action.