Dallas Cowboys Week 4: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Dallas Cowboys: The Ugly

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has no problems making bold moves. During the 2016 NFL Draft, Jones made one of his biggest in recent memory, drafting linebacker Jaylon Smith when he could not even run due to a gruesome leg injury sustained in his last college game.

2016 became a “redshirt” year for Smith as he needed that time to recover and rehab. The following year, Smith was sprinkled into the mix before finally becoming a starter near the end of the 2017 season.

The next three years saw Smith start every game at linebacker, culminating with a 2019 Pro Bowl selection and a six-year, $68M extension. Unfortunately for all involved, that peak was the beginning of the end.

Last season, Smith’s play was abysmal. Smith never really helped himself whenever he had an opportunity to own his terrible on-field presence. “Swiping” at completely inexcusable times and telling all of us to “watch the film,” when questioned about his play set a lot of people off.

This year, nothing improved. Even with his snaps severely limited (from 97.8% last year to 56.1% in 2021), Smith continued to show an inability to shed blocks, made numerous bad reads and was a complete liability in pass coverage.

Tuesday night, the Dallas Cowboys decided that eating $7M was worth ending the experiment. I could go on and on about how bad the entire Jaylon Smith era really was, but there is no point to that now. Jaylon is a phenomenal person off the field. He’s sincerely changing a lot of people’s lives, in real life, which absolutely matters.

I do not honestly know if another team will bring Jaylon in for a look-see. This could very well be the end of his football life but I definitely wish him continued success for the rest of his days on Earth.