Ian Rapoport among others says that Jaylon Smith's combine medical reports revealed ankle and knee nerve issues that will keep him out for at least his rookie year and be a question mark for longer. I really hope the kid had an insurance policy, he just went from a possible number 1 overall pick to a day 2 selection because of an injury in his last college game. That's awful.
That is terrible. But not sure if our roster has the luxury to sit on a 2nd round or 3rd rounder for a whole year.
I'd jump all over him in the second round. If you look at our record with second round picks they're not very good. I still think someone will take him before our second pick comes up
How often do the great players crippled by injury that are drafted anyway work out? Is it better than the normal bust percentage? I don't know which is why I'm asking. I just recall a few RB's over the years that were badly injured their senior years and never amounted to much in the pros even though they were still drafted in the mid-rounds. Clowney is another case where a guy didn't lose anything based on a senior year injury and he's been a bust so far after not playing much his rookie year.
Hindsight is always 20/20 but it sucks he stood at ND for the extra year. Case where he got punished for doing something admirable, just sucks. Good player, don't know if he was a dynamic game changing pass rusher but a very solid all around run and pass stopper, always a place for that on every team.
This is a golden opportunity to draft a pro bowl player in round two or three. We just need to have our doctors check him out and make sure there is no permanent damage.
Oh man. I really hope he gets to play. I'm an Irish fan, was an absolute joy watching this kid play. I would also love for him to be a Jet.
Did either mcgahee or lattimore have nerve damage? That's what scares me. I pinched the femoral nerve in my right hip/lower back in December of 2014. I spent the whole month of January 2015 flat on my back or stomach, couldn't sit up or lie on my side. I had to get two epidural shots of steroids in my spinal column just to be able to sit up and function again. I was told it would take a year to heal. It's been 15 months and the healing has been negligible. I did physical therapy and it helped in some ways and just aggravated the injury more in others. Granted, I'm 61, not 21 and he was in a lot better shape than I beforehand and has a lot more options with therapy than I did, but nerve damage is some serious shit. He may be like Lattimore and never the same player. The ligament damage could heal after surgery, but he may always have pain in that knee, and that is debilitating. I'm glad Smith had the foresight to get that insurance policy. I hope he will be able to make a full recovery, but his injury scares the crap out of me. I hope that Mac thinks long and hard about whether or not Smith is worth the risk.
I think teams like Pittsburgh, or New England or Green Bay that routinely compete without issue will scoop him up and take the risk/reward factor because regardless of the improvements or downgrades to their roster they'll compete because of their QB position. Teams like us need to scrape together talent from every round, every UDFA, every signing under a million dollars we can in order to try to put together a competitive roster for the following year, rather than simply relying on one player to garner a playoff spot. That unfortunately removes the luxury of spending a higher end pick and knowingly have him not contribute next year. I doubt we take him any higher than the 4th if he drops there, which I doubt he will. Looking at our drafts from 2008-2015, we need to start hitting on draft picks in all rounds or we're going to start becoming the Cleveland Browns.
i don't know what the damage was outside of total knee reconstruction from what i recall. those were just the best and worst examples of drafting a player with a significant injury high. the nerve damage is a deal breaker for me.
Thinking like that will turn us into the Cleveland Browns. Using a low second / high third round pick on a guy with this level of talent is how good teams ultimately win Superbowls. With our schedule next year and the holes we have to fill we may not make the playoffs next year anyway.
After all the horrible things we heard about his leg, I don't think he will be drafted in the second or third round. The poor kid is in for a big fall in the draft... My guess: late 4th or 5th round.