Arian Smith’s NFL comparison makes Jets draft gamble feel even riskier

When the New York Jets selected Georgia wide receiver Arian Smith with the 110th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, it raised a few eyebrows around the league.

Smith is undeniably fast — arguably the fastest player in the entire draft — but he’s also raw, has a hefty injury history, and was plagued by drop issues that made most evaluators project him as a late Day 3 prospect. The Jets, however, saw enough to pull the trigger early in Round 4.

But if you’re looking for a reason to worry about that gamble, just look at Smith’s NFL comparison. According to Bleacher Report's Dame Parson, Smith compares to former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Kolby Listenbee, a name most NFL fans likely don’t remember.

That’s because Listenbee never played a single snap in the league after being taken in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Unfortunately, the parallels between the two are impossible to ignore.

This is the fourth installment in our ongoing series comparing each Jets draft pick to their projected NFL counterpart. Links to the previous three articles can be found at the bottom of this story.

Arian Smith's NFL comparison is Kolby Listenbee

At first glance, the comparison makes sense. Both Smith and Listenbee were track stars before they were wide receivers. Smith ran a blazing 4.36 40-yard dash at the 2025 NFL Combine. Listenbee clocked in at 4.39 nearly a decade earlier.

Both were thin-framed, straight-line burners whose main selling point was their ability to stretch the field vertically. But that’s where the optimism ends.

Listenbee never played an NFL snap.

After being drafted in the sixth round by the Bills in 2016, the TCU product aggravated a lingering groin injury at the Combine. He underwent his second surgery on that same groin and missed his entire rookie season.

Listenbee was waived in June and spent brief, uneventful stints with the Dolphins and Colts before fading into obscurity. Most fans have never heard his name, and that’s exactly the concern with Smith.

While Smith doesn’t come with the exact same injury red flags entering the NFL — he didn’t miss a game over the past two seasons — his early college career was defined by constant setbacks.

From wrist surgery and a torn meniscus to a broken fibula and high ankle sprain, Smith’s injury history is long and well-documented. The Jets are betting that chapter is behind him. That’s far from a guarantee.

And while both players were raw route runners and struggled with physicality at the line, Smith carries an additional concern that Listenbee didn’t: his hands.

Smith dropped 10 passes during his senior season at Georgia, a staggering number for any receiver, let alone one with relatively limited volume. In 2023 alone, he recorded three drops despite making just eight catches.

For his career, he averaged a jaw-dropping 19.94 yards per catch, but his film shows more track athlete than polished wideout. He’s inconsistent in contested catch situations, offers little after the catch outside of straight-line speed, and lacks the route-running ability to create separation consistently.

Simply put: if he’s not streaking downfield untouched, he’s not winning.

The Jets selected Smith earlier than most expected despite a scouting profile that screamed late-round flier. His path to playing time isn’t impossible, though. He should have every opportunity to carve out an early role.

Outside of Garrett Wilson, the Jets' wide receiver room is a mix of shaky veterans and unproven depth. Allen Lazard and Josh Reynolds will battle for the WR2 role, while Smith is expected to compete with the likes of Tyler Johnson, Malachi Corley, and Xavier Gipson for snaps.

But if the Jets are hoping Smith blossoms into more than just a one-trick deep threat, they’ll need to see rapid growth in nearly every other area of his game. Unlike Listenbee, he’ll have a chance to prove himself. He just has a lot to prove.

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