I think you're selling Smothers short. I expect him to RS this year largely because he's so skinny, but he's much more dynamic running than just being a straight ahead sprinter.
He looks more elusive and aggressive in the open field to me than Martinez, and there's no doubt he's faster. I don't know about the level of competition but he shakes kids in his film and shows good vision when he runs. Doesn't strike me as a kid who loves contact, I don't see clips of him really running through guys. More of a Newcombe than a Frost as a runner.
Throws a real rainbow of a ball, not a ton of pop on his throws but he's solidly accurate and seems to keep his accuracy throwing on the run. You don't get to 74% on the year being an inherently erratic passer. And he's not just dinking and dunking little 5 yard hitches and swing passes all day either.
There are definitely times he locks onto a guy, throws a contested ball and gets away with it because his WR just emasculates the DB to go get the ball. But if you know your WR is gonna do that is it still a bad decision?
I wasn't dazzled with McCaffrey's passing coming out of HS either. You worry about Smothers getting WRs killed at the college level with how long the ball takes to arrive. Or getting picked off. But as his strength improves and they work on his motion, you'd except some more zip on the ball.
My main questions with Smothers are:
Can he get the ball down a bit and increase his velocity while keeping his accuracy?
Can he run through traffic and break tackles and be willing to cut up inside and absorb contact?