Kirby Smart defends Georgia QB Gunner Stockton after Steve Smith's 'awful' comments

Five-time NFL Pro Bowler Steve Smith was highly critical of the Georgia football offense and quarterback Gunner Stockton when breaking down footage for next week’s NFL Draft.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart came to Stockton’s defense on Tuesday April 14.

The Carolina Panthers all-time leading receiver in a video posted to YouTube when evaluating Georgia wide receiver Dillon Bell said the offense “has done him a disservice,” by using him in multiple ways and said he’s “straight up frustrated,” watching Bell’s film.

“Let’s get right down to it,” he said of quarterback Gunner Stockton. “I don’t know the young man’s name, and I don’t want to because the way I watched him play quarterback, hell, I’m irritated just watching it. Goodness gracious. The quarterback play from the Georgia Bulldogs, uh, awful. Uh, Dog doo-doo. As a wide receiver, I’m going on strike, right? I’m not working or running a route until I get a better quarterback. And holler at your boy, when you get it, because I’m out of here.”

Smart was asked in an appearance on Atlanta’s 680 The Fan what his response was to Smith’s comments.

“Do your homework,” he said. “Do a little more homework. I think if you look at small sections of it, there are things he can do better. If you look at the total body of work, it’s been really good. I think it’s going to get better with experience.”

Stockton helped lead Georgia to an SEC championship win in his first season as starter, a spot in the College Football Playoff and finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting, but Smart has said he wants the offense to produce more explosive plays.

“I don’t really know Steve Smith personally,” Smart said. “I’ve got nothing to respond to him. I don’t really worry about what he says. I worry about do we win football games and do we do produce?”

Smart said Georgia has the second most receivers drafted in the last seven NFL Drafts and that Georgia is top two in the SEC in passing over the last five years with multiple quarterbacks.

“People look past a lot of things and they’re going to judge Gunner off a throw or a play,” Smart said. “Judge him by his toughness, his intangibles. The throws he does make.”

Co-host James Palmer told Smith when he made calls about draft prospects, he was told others were having a hard time evaluating Georgia receivers because the offense “is bleeping hard to watch.”

Smart said Smith “needs clickbait, he needs links, he needs likes. You make comments about players and guys in the draft, that’s his job. Much respect. You’ve got your opinion. You’ve got to form your opinion. We’ll have ours within this building. We have conviction about Gunner, we have conviction about the other players on our team.”

Palmer told Smith, who had 14,731 receiving yards in 16 NFL seasons, he needs to talk to Smart about Stockton.

“Kirby don’t want to talk to me after this,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart defends QB Gunner Stockton from criticism from Steve Smith