One name that will likely experience a huge tumble when it comes to the NFL Draft in April is former Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith. He suffered nerve damage in his knee during the team’s Fiesta Bowl loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes and he doesn’t seem to be healing too well right now.
Reports arose that multiple teams had failed Smith medically and even graded him as a Day 3 prospect. Now, another report has arose that says Smith is currently 20 pounds under his playing weight.
Smith hasn’t been able to participate in workouts at the Combine, but he did weigh in on Sunday. He weighed in at 223 pounds, much less than the 243 he played at during the most recent college football season.
“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 have to look at other players that have recovered from surgeries at the Combine when thinking of Smith. Last year, Rams running back Todd Gurley was recovering from a very similar injury, minus the nerve damage, and ended up being a top ten pick and winning Rookie of the Year honors.
This could end up being a huge blow for Smith to take and you can only hope his knee gets better before his stock gets much worse.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
