Dallas Cowboys: Everyone needs to chill out about Jaylon Smith

Only a handful of days into Dallas Cowboys training camp, everyone is already rushing to judge Jaylon Smith, but don’t overreact in any direction.

There’s a viable chance that Jaylon Smith would’ve been a top-five pick in the 2016 NFL Draft in an alternate universe. Hell, he would’ve had a case to be picked ahead of Jared Goff and Carson Wentz as the top-overall pick in this universe. Instead, a horrific knee injury in the Fiesta Bowl — his final game at Notre Dame — put his football-playing future (much less his NFL prospects) in jeopardy. That, however, didn’t stop the Dallas Cowboys from taking a risk.

Jerry and Stephen Jones rolled the dice, taking Smith with the 34th-overall pick in the 2016 draft. Coming off of the torn ACL and, more worryingly, nerve damage in his knee, he sat out all of last season. However, with reports throughout the offseason about the nerve starting to re-fire and regenerate, the hope has been that he’ll play in 2017.

Given the outlook for the Cowboys defense in 2017, the notion of having Smith out there is enticing for easily discernible reasons.

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While Sean Lee is phenomenal, the rest of the linebackers leave something to be desired. Put simply, having Smith on the field with Lee and Anthony Hitchens is far more attractive than seeing Damien Wilson or Kyle Wilbur instead. This, of course, is assuming that Smith can play at a high level.

Coming off of such a debilitating knee injury and grueling recovery (mentally and physically), no one expects Smith to be 100 percent of the player he was for the Fighting Irish. However, even 85 percent of what he used to be is still a damn good NFL linebacker.

Subsequently, it was inevitable that eyes from Cowboys fans and around the league would be on Smith at the start of training camp. Just as unavoidable was the wild reactions that everyone would have. That’s exactly what happened on Monday when this clip out of Oxnard, CA and Dallas’ training camp made its way around Twitter:

Jaylon Smith pic.twitter.com/UiueNgVS3T
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) July 24, 2017

There’s no question that this brief play from Smith doesn’t look great. For a player who was so explosive and instinctual in college, he’s nothing close to that there. Not only does he appear to be hobbled slightly, it almost appears as if he’s focused on running properly as opposed to making a play.

After seeing the contents of that clip, it figures that everyone started freaking out. Those who lambasted the Cowboys for selecting Smith cried vindication. Others who were optimistic became a bit downtrodden. Granted, there were some measured reactions, but many of them were not.

While those reactions aren’t unsurprising, they’re also asinine. Reacting to one play early in training camp for any player is ludicrous. When that player is playing for the first time in 18 months outside of minicamp workouts, it’s even more absurd. And if you need any proof of that fact, here’s a broader look at Smith’s work on Monday at training camp:

Sure, that first play still stands out with the limp and the ugliness of it. However, it’s also the outlier in that compilation. For the most part — aside from getting swallowed by Tyron Smith on a running play — Smith looks explosive and fast with little-to-no sign of a limp. Watching that grouping of clips, it would appear that there’s reason to be excited.