Dallas Cowboys Jaylon Smith may not play in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday as he still patiently waits to get back on the field following a 2016 knee injury
In 2016 the Dallas Cowboys took a significant gamble with the 34th overall pick in the draft. After taking the exciting running back Ezekiel Elliott in the first round, they went for another splash by selecting Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith out of Notre Dame.
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Smith was widely considered a top-10 pick during the 2015 season and likely would have been the first non-quarterback taken in the draft. Instead, he became a risky selection because of a knee injury in his final college game in January 2016. The talented linebacker tore both his ACL and LCL in his right knee, but the real concern was the lack of nerve regeneration.
Dallas felt comfortable with the choice in large part because of their team doctor being the primary surgeon to work on Smith’s knee. Even so, they knew he would miss his entire rookie season as he recovered. Now entering Year 2, people are beginning to get excited about the prospect of the instinctive linebacker being on the field.
To this point, Smith has been a limited participant in practice and all eyes have been on his every move. He’s looked slow at times, and he’s looked like himself at times. All-in-all, it’s a process as he shakes the rust off and waits for the nerves to fire like normal.
While the second-year player was hoping to take that next step and play in a full-contact game, his team owner and general manager says “not so fast.” Despite Smith’s desire to play in Thursday’s Hall of Fame game against the Arizona Cardinals, Jones says he isn’t sure that will happen — which means it probably won’t. Smith won’t let that get him down though as he patiently waits for his chance to get back to the gridiron.
Smith had this to say via Todd Archer of ESPN:
"“I don’t know if I’m going to play or not,” Smith said. “It’s a matter of if they’ll let me. Whenever they’ll tell me I can go play, I’ll go play. I’ll just take it day by day. That’s what we’ve been doing. Really looking forward to getting some reps.”"
Even if he doesn’t play Thursday, the strides Smith has made have been amazing. He’s worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and the Dallas staff is doing right by him by not rushing things.
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As for Smith’s family, they still should stay tuned into this game. His older brother, Rod Smith, enters his third year — and second full season — with the Cowboys. The elder Smith has been making progress as a running back and could unseat Alfred Morris for the final spot on the team. Thursday’s game should give him plenty of time to prove his worth in that endeavor.