Northwestern offensive tackle Peter Skoronski was regarded by most as the best offensive line prospect entering this year’s draft.
Talent evaluators have long known that he has no glaring weakness in his game whatsoever and that was very apparent based on his dominant All-American college career.. He checked all the boxes both on and off the field and comes from excellent bloodlines (his grandfather is five-time NFL champion offensive tackle Bob Skoronski).
Simply put, he’s everything you could possibly be looking for in an offensive lineman and is projected by most analysts to be a perennial Pro Bowler in the NFL.. There’s absolutely no such thing as a “sure thing” in the NFL Draft – but Skoronski is just about as close as it gets.
You would think that any coach in need of a franchise tackle would be thrilled to speak to and evaluate him in the leadup to draft day.
Well, as it turns out, Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Arthur Smith wasn’t exactly head-over-heels excited with his meeting with the big fella.
“The head coach (Smith) was on me the second I got in there,” Skoronski told Dan Pompei of The Athletic. “I was giving them generic answers to their questions, and he said, ‘You’re really boring me right now. Your answers are so boring.’”
“The whole meeting, he kept looking at his computer. I was kind of laughing to myself and said, ‘Sorry, I don’t know what you want me to do. I’m answering you honestly.’”
In fairness to Smith, he may very well have been testing Skoronski.. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a coach said something bizarre to a draft prospect just to see how they’d react. It’s a common practice and calling a prospect “boring” would register as one of the most mildest comments if that was actually the strategic route Smith took.
Or maybe I’m looking too much into it and Smith was actually bored to death by Skoronski and not afraid to tell him.
Regardless, the Falcons indeed ended up passing on him and selected Texas running back Bijan Robinson with their eight overall pick instead (which surely raised a lot of eyebrows).
Skoronski ended up being drafted by the Titans with the 11th overall pick.. Tennessee seems like a phenomenal landing spot for him.. Apparently he didn’t put Mike Vrabel to sleep when they spoke.