The Dallas Cowboys‘ affinity for making daring picks in the draft’s second round is now a well known thing. When this site started tracking the club’s draft commandments, the original count was eight. But in looking back over the historical trends and tendencies in 2016, a ninth was quickly added. The club uses their second-round pick to take a huge risk. Whether it be a character flag, medical flag or wild swing for the fences, Jerry Jones insisted on trying to game the system by taking a huge risk in the round.
Entering the 2016 draft, the wild swings included trading up for Morris Claiborne and the character flag group centered around Randy Gregory. The injury flag was the most populated group, where the team selected players with first-round talent but injury risks that allowed them to drop. North Carolina’s Bruce Carter and Penn State’s Sean Lee were the poster children until this particular haul that netted Notre Dame’s Jaylon Smith.
Advertisement
Why is this relevant? Because after bounding around the league and not playing anywhere in 2024, Smith is attempting to latch on with another team, this week joining the Las Vegas Raiders’ rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
Smith suffered an extreme injury in the bowl game of his final season in South Bend, destroying knee ligaments and also suffering from drop foot. His surgery was performed by the Cowboys’ team doctor, giving them insight into the potential recovery, or so they thought. He missed his entire rookie season, but played in all 16 games his second year, after being forced into the lineup due to injuries to Lee. He rounded into a top linebacker in 2018, deserving of but not receiving Pro Bowl honors.
After just one starring campaign though, Jones rewarded him with a lucrative five-year, $68 million extension. Smith received his Pro Bowl nod the following year, but close observers saw a player already in decline. The long-term impact of the initial injury started showing up in his performance. His movement ability was greatly hindered and he had issues diagnosing plays, starting to guess wildly. A new coaching staff moved him to the weakside in 2020, but eventually he was released midseason 2021.
Since then, he’s played for Green Bay, the New York Giants, the Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers (practice squad). His last NFL action came in 2023 in Las Vegas, and now he is hoping to impress their new coaching staff, led by Pete Carroll.
Advertisement
In 88 career games, 69 of them starts, Smith has 11 sacks, two interceptions, six forced fumbles and has totaled 626 tackles.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Former Cowboys LB Jaylon Smith trying out alongside Raiders rookies
