Like Curtis Conway told me at the NFL Network Draft Media luncheon in Chicago, Foxy will go heavy defense, let him go heavy defense. Let John Fox this team. Hence they should draft Defensive Best Player Available at the #11 pick next month.
Given that the Chicago Bears desperately need to rebuild their linebacking corps, why not go Jaylon Smith, the early entry from Notre Dame? Well, there’s a lot of reasons not to go there, and we’ll get into that. Bottom line though, the era of Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher today feels like it was 30 years ago, not 3.
Here’s more on the Bears options at linebacker in this draft, with analysis from Mel Kiper Jr.
Smith, the 2015 Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top collegiate LB, (only guy to win both the high school and the college version of the award) tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, and hence now sees his stock tumble. He was a top 5 lock before the injury, but now resides….quoting the classic ’80s comedy Fletch:
“I think we’re in a gray area now.
“How gray?”
“Charcoal.”
The teens to twenties range are now all in play for Jaylon Smith.
ESPN’s Todd McShay did a media conference call a few days ago, and you can hear that at this link. Cue up around the 21:00, 22:oo mark for the Jaylon Smith discussion.
(Sorry, no transcript available of the McShay recording)
What was most intriguing, among all the observations and opinions that McShay gave, was the variance in NFL teams on Smith. He’s not even on some people’s boards. For other teams, he’s a transcendent, blue chip prospect. However, as McShay pointed out, 2016 is probably off the table for Smith.
He might be ruled out for the whole year. Given that the Bears just went through not having their first round pick this season due to an injury (Kevin White, #7 overall), it’s questionable whether or not Chicago would willingly sign on for this kind of long-term project. Then again, the Bears are certainly not in “win now” mode. They’re more in rebuilding mode, and some would argue that they’re still in sell off mode to some extent.
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said on the day he declared for the draft: “I think he’s a generational player at his position. He’ll recover fine from (the injury). We saw (former Georgia and current Rams RB) Todd Gurley have an ACL and MCL (injury); obviously, it didn’t affect his status. The NFL will be lucky to get a young man like this.”
Ohio State Defensive Coordinator Luke Fickell, in advance of the Fiesta Bowl, said this about Jaylon Smith:
“The unique thing is, a lot of times what you’re looking for at linebacker is if you can find a guy that can truly be recruited as a tailback. Most of those guys that are tailbacks, they want the ball, always want to be a tailback.
“If you can ever convert some of those guys that were legitimate tailbacks to play linebacker, you’re looking at a different athlete, a different cat, guys that can do different things.”
“Jaylon Smith, in high school that guy was a heck of an athlete. He was a running back. You didn’t know what he was going to play.”
Everybody raves about what kind of student of the game Smith as well. He’s an extremely smart player with a lot of instincts and acumen. If Smith truly will become the next Dick Butkus, it might be because he has a consistent ability to do due diligence and dedicated discipline on par with his amazing natural gifts.
Jaylon Smith was also discussed on yet another NFL Draft conference call, this one with NFL Network’s Mike Mayock. here’s the Q and A:
Q. I was just wondering how similar you feel Jaylon Smith ‘s situation is right now is to that of Willis McGahee back in the ’03 draft in terms of proximity to the injury to the pre-draft season and just how far he might fall in light of where his medical sits.
MIKE MAYOCK:
“Well, it’s a great question. I’ve had this conversation with some general managers and coaches just this past week. First and foremost, I feel horribly for the kid, injuring the knee, especially when he injured it in the bowl game.
“Secondly, if he did not get hurt, he’d be in the conversation for the first pick in the draft. That’s how good his junior season was. A little bit like Myles Jack in the sense that I saw him take a big leap forward as a full three-down linebacker this year. He’s sideline to sideline with speed, he’s as exciting a linebacker prospect as I’ve seen since Luke Kuechly as far as an insider, off-the-ball linebacker.”
“He could have been the first pick in the draft. Now if he gets a clean evaluation, he’s still going to be a first-round pick, probably a top-15 pick, because he’s that special. If there’s any cloudiness or murkiness around that knee between now and the draft, teams are going to look at it differently, and since we don’t know yet what it is, I can’t go there, but I think that’s as close as I can get today.”
Mayock’s follow up was:
“The chance that he might miss half this season, the fact that Kevin White didn’t play all last season, do you wonder whether the Bears would have the stomach for that?”
MIKE MAYOCK:
“You want to have maybe one of the two or three or four best linebackers in football, and you might have to wait a half a season for him, to me every team is going to have a different answer to that, and I’m not sure what Chicago’s would be.”
“But if he has clean medical and you know you’re going to get him for a half season plus and he’s going to be fine, yeah, I think you pull the trigger on a kid like that.”
In other words, the idea of Jaylon Smith to the Chicago Bears is something that we can debate back and forth endlessly between now and the NFL Draft next month. Fun times indeed!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram