Ito Smith’s career in Atlanta has been marked by many roadblocks. As a fourth round pick in 2018, Ito joined a team with Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman already entrenched, but was able to take advantage of injuries at the position to put together nearly 500 combined yards and 4 touchdowns in his rookie season. In 2019, he was sparingly used and picked up multiple concussions that knocked him out for the year, seemingly putting his future with the team in doubt.
Indeed, Ito’s lack of a role was a quiet but consistently befuddling issue this year. He was inactive once and otherwise barely played, watching Todd Gurley and Brian Hill increasingly get bogged down as runners and get virtually no targets in the passing game.