It's Anyone's Guess When Jaylon Smith Will Be Drafted
It seems like it’s been a while since there’s been good news on the NFL Draft front for Jaylon Smith, but Wednesday provided just that for the former Irish linebacker.
According to ESPN reporter Adam Schefter, there’s still a chance that Smith gets selected in the first round of this weekend’s NFL Draft.
If those reports are to be believed, they represent a change in direction for Smith’s draft stock in recent weeks while he works on his recovery from a torn ACL and LCL as well as nerve damage from the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State.
Some media reports in recent weeks even suggested that Smith could fall to the back end of Day 3, which includes Rounds 4-7.
It’s one of the most compelling stories of the 2016 NFL Draft.
“Obviously Jaylon Smith, not just from a Notre Dame perspective but just from a football world perspective is a big deal,” said Scott Wright, a DraftCountdown.com analyst. “I think that's going to be one of the biggest storylines of the 2016 NFL Draft. Trying to figure out where he's going to end up and it's looking like he's going to slide. I think that's going to be the big storyline for Notre Dame throughout.”
Dr. Dan Cooper, the surgeon who performed Smith’s surgery and who also is the Dallas Cowboys’ head team physician, recently revealed to USA Today that Smith has foot-drop, which means he currently cannot lift his left foot.
“He’s had time for his nerve to regrow two inches, and the area of where his nerve was injured is six inches above the muscle that it innervates,” Cooper told USA Today. “I wouldn’t really expect him to get much innervation back into that muscle for two or three more months. Then once it does – I’ve seen kids who are completely paralyzed like him on the lateral side and not able to pick their foot up at all (that) wind up being totally normal.”
Cooper added that there is no guarantee that the nerve ever fully recovers.
That mystery is what has made Smith’s draft value such a mystery and has resulted in such a wide range of opinions from NFL scouts.
“From what I heard, there's a good chance he could fall all the way to day three,” Wright said. “He could be available on the last day. I think somebody's going to draft him at some point but I still think there's a chance he sneaks into the back end of Round 3, but I think that's probably where he's looking now. I think the back end of Round 3, maybe a team like the Vikings or the Bengals or maybe one of those compensatory picks at the end of Round 3 where teams might be playing with a bit of house money.
“It's too bad and hopefully he'll return to form and I struggled with what to do with him in my final overall rankings. I ultimately put him at No. 6 or 7 overall. I understand he's not going to go anywhere near that high, but until I hear he's not going to come back, I'm going to work off the assumption that he's going to be back in 2017 and if he's anywhere near the player he was, he'll be in my top 10 of this draft.”
Smith might be waiting a while to hear his name called this weekend, but there’s a good chance the potential of the linebacker returning to full health in the future makes him too attractive to pass up in the early rounds.
The NFL Draft begins Thursday at 8 p.m. on ESPN and the NFL Network.