Three NFL teams will set aside Notre Dame star Jaylon Smith from their pool of draftable prospects until the medical recheck of the linebacker's knee in April, sources from those clubs told Yahoo Sports.
Sources from all three teams expressed pressing concern about Smith's left knee, namely about potential long-term nerve issues rather than his surgically repaired ACL and LCL. A source from a fourth team said the franchise's doctors were asked to hold their assessment entirely until after Smith's recheck. The consensus among the teams setting Smith aside is that a conservative approach will likely require a "redshirt year" in 2016.
Two teams said that even if Smith's April recheck is satisfactory, he will still likely land on their "sub board" – a list containing red-flagged players who will be considered if they fall to a certain point in the draft.
Much like those teams, Smith's draft position is likely up in the air for arguably every NFL franchise until April. That's a fairly significant reality exiting the scouting combine, particularly for a player who many identified as one of the special players in the draft.
Smith inadvertently prompted the question of potential nerve damage after he tweeted a video of himself walking without a knee brace earlier this week. The video caught the eye of former San Diego Chargers team doctor David Chao, who pointed out on his own Twitter account that Smith was wearing a brace on his lower leg and ankle used to help with nerve recovery. When Smith arrived for his media session at the combine Friday, the exchange quickly turned to questions of potential nerve damage.
Initially, Smith said the nerve wasn't damaged and hadn't been "stretched." But as the session went on, he characterized the nerve as "healing."
"It's just a matter of the recovery process," Smith said. "I don't know when the nerves and everything will heal. It's just a matter of me taking it day by day and controlling what I can control."
Asked specifically about the lower leg brace in the video, which also appeared to cover his ankle, Smith said it was indeed to address a nerve issue.
"The AFO [ankle foot orthosis] is to help me walk and to help everything heal," he said. "It's helping the nerve heal."
Smith weighed 223 pounds at the combine, 20 pounds below the 243 he played at during the college football season. In September, Smith said he wanted to maintain his weight at 243 for the remainder of his football career. If that's still the case, his rehabilitation process will include not only recovering his ability to cut, run and explode on his knee, but also regaining any lost strength and good weight.
This is why teams will obsess over his medical report from this week, and how significantly it improves by the April recheck. Unlike UCLA's Myles Jack, who had his knee aggressively manipulated on Friday, Smith mostly did some walking for doctors to show his progress since surgery on Jan. 7.
"There's a lot of segments of the combine that all these players are going to go through, and for somebody like Jaylon, when he goes and visits with the medical staff and team doctors, that's going to be his most important visit," Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead said. "What you find, with him, is where his knee is, and what the long-term prognosis is will [determine] where he gets drafted, and if you want to call it, 'Is the risk worth the reward?'"
"You may figure out with him he may not play any his rookie year," Snead said. "But if you think he's a top-five talent and he's going to get to that level – Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 – yes it takes courage but it could turn out to be a wise decision. Like I'd tell Jaylon, whether you got hurt or not, it really doesn't matter where you get drafted. It matters, whether we're talking about Jaylon or any other player who has been injured in four, five, six, seven, eight to 10 years."
For his part, Smith remained adamant that he expects to recover fully and be an impact player in the pros, potentially a defensive version of Rams running back Todd Gurley, who as the 10th overall pick last season overcame his own significant knee issue to arrive as one of the NFL's brightest young stars in 2015. That level of recovery would suit prospective teams just fine, as they typically salivate over players with Smith's level of skills, smarts, athleticism and versatility. It's universally believed that Smith could be a high-level player at inside or outside linebacker, while serving as an every-down player who could be a fit in almost any defensive scheme or package.
"It's a long=term decision, whoever drafts me," Smith said. "I'm a guy who will be around for a while, playing at an elite level. An impact player. It was great watching a guy like Todd Gurley do it last year. … I'm going to be a very impactful player for a long time."
Before he can get to that "long time" goal, Smith must first get to April. That's when many across the league will find out exactly how much confidence NFL teams have recovered in their assessment of the Notre Dame star.
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