Top Ten Players of The Mike Price Era: #7 Da'Mon Cromartie-Smith

A three year stater, a 2009 All C-USA first team member, and recently signed Washington Redskins safety Da'Mon Cromartie-Smith checks in at number seven in our best of the Mike Price era countdown.

Cromartie-Smith donned the Orange and Blue from 2005-2009, and finished within the top three leaders on the team in tackles during his final three seasons as a starter.

Manning the "MinerBack" spot during his senior and junior year's, DC-Smith lead UTEP with 106 tackles, four tackles for loss, also including a sack in his senior year where he was named first team All-C-USA as a safety, after two years as an honorable mention member.

Overall in his career, he compiled 306 tackles in 46 total games, four interceptions, two sacks, and had two fourteen tackle games once as a sophomore, and again as a junior. During his sophomore year, his first year as a starter, Cromartie-Smith had six tackles or more in eight games.

In nine out of his ten games played his senior year, Cromartie-Smith had seven or more tackles in those nine games, racking up a career high 18 stops in the season opener against Buffalo as well.

He also had a streak of three straight games with 10 or more tackles in 2009, and finished the last six games of his senior year averaging ten tackles a game during that ladder part of his Miner stint.

After his solid UTEP career came to an end, Cromartie-Smith signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a rookie free agent in 2010, but was a member of the practice squad and did not see any official action.

He would then sign a deal with the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the UFL for a brief stint in the newly formed league at the time, before rejoining the Steelers in December of 2011.

From 2011-2013, Cromartie-Smith would play in ten games for the Steelers, bouncing between the active roster, and practice squad, before he was placed on IR in 2013 with a hip injury that would lead to his eventual release.

Then yesterday he got a huge call from Daniel Snyder and the Redskins, joining the Skins in training camp in hopes of latching on for another NFL season and hopefully more to come.

Cromarite-Smith was not only a constant for tackles, and huge hits during UTEP tenure, but some could argue very strongly that he was the best defensive player in the history of the Mike Price era.

Top Ten Players of the Mike Price Era:

#10. Donald Buckram

#9. Oniel Cousins

#8. Antwon Blake