Machota: The Jaylon Smith gamble paid off, Cowboys feel. Now they’re planning to unleash one of his best skills.

Cotton

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The Jaylon Smith gamble paid off, Cowboys feel. Now they’re planning to unleash one of his best skills.
By Jon Machota , Staff Writer

OXNARD, Calif. - A year later and the progress continues. Last year's training camp was Jaylon Smith's first in pads. He was fresh off a redshirt NFL year following the significant left knee injury he suffered at Notre Dame that nearly ended his career.

He played a full season last year, but appeared limited while wearing a drop-foot brace.

The brace is now gone and Smith is showcasing his best movement, explosiveness and speed since Dallas drafted him in 2016.

"Each and every day I've progressed," Smith said. "And the numbers show that, so it's a great feeling."

Most didn't think it would ever get to this point. Smith was expected to be a top 10 pick before the injury. After, some thought the severity would lead to him falling into the later rounds. Dallas gambled early in the second round.

The Cowboys are now feeling like they won their bet.

"He's only going to improve," executive vice president Stephen Jones said. "You saw him out there in OTAs and minicamp and you can already see that he looks different. Talking with our training staff and strength and conditioning staff, I don't think he's finished."

Jones said that Britt Brown, the team's associate athletic trainer and director of rehabilitation, was correct in his speculation that the nerve damage Smith suffered would improve beyond the first year after his knee was surgically-repaired by team physician, Dr. Daniel Cooper.

"There's still more to come, I think," Jones added. "He's certainly much, much better."

Smith has worked exclusively as Dallas' first-team middle linebacker in camp. The Cowboys used this year's first-round pick on Leighton Vander Esch, who also projects to be an NFL middle linebacker.

Up to this point, though, Vander Esch has been working mostly with the second-team.

As long as Smith continues to play like he has through the first week of camp, the Cowboys will find ways to keep him on the field. Smith has particularly turned heads with his improved sideline-to-sideline movement, an area where he struggled last season.

In several one-on-one and team drills at camp, Smith has had the task of defending star running back Ezekiel Elliott on passing plays. Smith has stayed stride-for-stride with the team's most talented offensive weapon in most of those situations.



Smith's downhill speed was a strength last year. His best play came in Week 7 at San Francisco when he blitzed quarterback C.J. Beathard, recording a sack and forcing a fumble. The Cowboys are looking to utilize that skill even more in 2018.

Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli has a reputation of not often blitzing his linebackers. He prefers to get quarterback pressure from his four down linemen. But from what Smith has been doing in practice, it appears Marinelli has been willing to adjust.

"Oh, it's going to happen," Smith said of Marinelli allowing him to blitz more often. "He likes it. He likes that speed and intensity."

Kris Richard, the Cowboys' new defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator, sees Smith as an ideal blitzing linebacker. Having Smith rush the quarterback more frequently is a good indicator of Richard's influence on Dallas' defensive scheme.

"He's a thumper, he's got great speed, he's got anticipation and he's getting to where he's supposed to be on the field," Richard said. "He's got all the tools."

Smith said he has always been fascinated by pass rushers. Some of the players he has studied include Lawrence Taylor, Von Miller, Khalil Mack, Lavonte David and Kwon Alexander.

"I'm a pass rusher at heart," Smith said. "That's what I do. I really hadn't had an opportunity to show that because I'm so versatile. But in this defense, I'm excited to be able to tackle a lot of different things this year."

Smith played 54 percent of the team's defensive snaps last year, second among linebackers only to Sean Lee. That's more than they would have preferred in Smith's first season, but injuries forced their hand.

The Cowboys hope that Lee, Smith and Vander Esch all stay healthy, but they know that's a tall task at such a violent position. Even though two linebackers are usually on the field in their defensive scheme, at least three starting-caliber players are needed at the position. The goal is to have a rotation that limits each players' snaps, keeping them fresh and reducing the chance of injury.

"Last year, I needed all that work to prepare me for now," Smith said. "I improved each and every game and it showed, so this year is a big year."



If anyone other than Smith would know if he's back to what he was before the injury, it would be his brother, Cowboys running back Rod Smith.

The two provided the most entertaining one-on-one compete period drill of camp last week. While running a dig route, Rod got a step on his younger brother, beating him to the outside. Rod caught the pass for a short gain, but Jaylon responded by tackling him, knocking him out of bounds.

Players aren't supposed to tackle to the ground in the drill, but judging by everyone's reaction, the rules don't apply to brothers.

Rod recently said he believes Jaylon is all the way back to being the star player he was at Notre Dame.

Told of that comment, Jaylon smiled, "I'm going to be better than that."
 

Genghis Khan

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The Cowboys are optimistic about an unproven player? Color me shocked.

His ceiling is high so personally I wouldn't say I'm optimistic after seeing him last year but I'm hopeful. I do wish we had more of a backup plan if things go south.
 

lostxn

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The Cowboys are optimistic about an unproven player? Color me shocked.

His ceiling is high so personally I wouldn't say I'm optimistic after seeing him last year but I'm hopeful. I do wish we had more of a backup plan if things go south.
lve
 

boozeman

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This was pretty exciting to see.


 

Cotton

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Yeah, like I said in the TC thread, dude is hella fast.
 

skidadl

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I hate the way he leaves his feet. He grabs and uses his body to bring down players.
 

p1_

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The speed is there. I even saw strong lateral movement in the play vs Rod.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I hate the way he leaves his feet. He grabs and uses his body to bring down players.
Yeah he doesn't hit guys like a hammer as much as he sort of grabs and swings them down. But he is effective with it. Plus I feel like he is less likely to get a penalty the way he hits.
 

Cowboysrock55

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The speed is there. I even saw strong lateral movement in the play vs Rod.
Yeah I don't think people can really question his movement skills anymore. I have really high hopes for him. But even at 100% just like any LBer you never really know if their elite college game will translate into an elite NFL game. Still at 100% health it's like having a Roquan Smith type talent to pin your hopes on.
 

skidadl

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Yeah he doesn't hit guys like a hammer as much as he sort of grabs and swings them down. But he is effective with it. Plus I feel like he is less likely to get a penalty the way he hits.
I'm not saying he won't do well but he will have some horrifically terrible misses that way.
 

Smitty

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This was pretty exciting to see.


That could easily be a flag in live game though.
 

Smitty

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Dunno why that quoted my response. I have the text outside the quote brackets.
 

p1_

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But he has improved notably. Looks to have improved mobility.
 

ravidubey

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And this whole notion of the gamble "paying off", sorry, but way premature.

Don't forget they could have had Myles Jack. Jack's been deep into the playoffs while we're still watching workout and practice videos of Smith.
 

Simpleton

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And this whole notion of the gamble "paying off", sorry, but way premature.

Don't forget they could have had Myles Jack. Jack's been deep into the playoffs while we're still watching workout and practice videos of Smith.
Keep in mind that Jack looked pretty bad as a rookie and didn't get much playing time. Smith actually played more than twice as many snaps in 2017 as Jack did in 2016.

Let's hope Smith can have the same sort of 2nd year improvement, although even if he is only maybe 80% of what Jack was last year I think you'd have to be happy with that.
 

Rev

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and Jack was the sole reason that team went deep into the playoffs......

Team game.
 

Cotton

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Dunno why that quoted my response. I have the text outside the quote brackets.
For whatever reason, if you quote more than one tweet, it includes your response inside the quote. That's why I generally only post one tweet at a time.
 
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