When the San Francisco 49ers inked veteran linebacker Malcolm Smith to a five-year, $26.5 million contract in 2017, they were hoping they’d get a high-caliber player channeling his former Super Bowl MVP ways and someone capable of revamping what was an inert and inept defense.
But Smith suffered a torn pectoral before he ever stepped on the field for the Niners in 2017, missing the entire season as a result.
OK, bad luck, perhaps. Yet Smith’s 2018 efforts weren’t particularly inspiring either. And by the year’s end, Smith had been relegated to backup duty, losing his starting linebacker job to a special teams contributor, Elijah Lee.