FRISCO, Texas – Before his career-threatening knee injury in the 2016 Rose Bowl, Jaylon Smith was almost surely a top-five draft pick.
Two and a half years later, healthy with a full NFL season on his résumé, the 22-year-old linebacker expects to surpass college-age Jaylon Smith in 2018.
“I’m going to be better than ‘Notre Dame 100 percent,’” he said at the Cowboys’ seventh annual Reliant Home Run Derby.
Here’s proof that Smith feels healthier and healthier: He says he has trained this offseason without the foot brace he used last year to counter the movement restrictions caused by the nerve damage he sustained with the old knee injury.