Dallas Cowboys Take Enormous Risk On Jaylon Smith At No. 34

Jaylon Smith was easily one of the top five players in the 2016 NFL Draft class, but a devastating knee injury ruined his draft stock. The Dallas Cowboys clearly didn’t have a big problem with those issues because they snagged the Notre Dame product with the 34th pick in the draft.

Smith is a great kid and a super talent but he will miss the 2016 season as he recovers from ACL and LCL tears and an injury to the peroneal nerve in his left leg. The nerve issues could wind up causing Smith to actually never play again. It’s a similar injury to the one Marcus Lattimore suffered. Lattimore was a fourth-round pick in 2013 and never actually played an NFL game.

Taking Smith near the top of the second round is an absolutely enormous risk for the Cowboys. The same nerve issue has caused the end of many careers, not just Lattimore’s.

Hopefully, Smith doesn’t face the same fate. Everyone raved about his character along with his playing ability and as he was drafted, the young man was in tears. Some thought he might last until the third day of the draft and he wound up getting taken by one of the league’s premier franchises early in the second round.

Good for him, he’s an easy kid to root for. Here’s hoping he gets healthy soon.