How did a top LB core, go from hero to zero?

MaineBoy

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Those two lb's got 24 tackles last week. Jaylon leads the league in tackles. The problem is our worthless, underachieving d-line. Hotboyz not so hot.

The problem is just the d-line and not Jaylon Smith ? Because of some empty stats ? Dude, you should watch #54 play. They show it on TV. Wow.
 

Motorola

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Both Jaylon and LVE were high draft selections that were highly and hotly debated over because of their injuries in college. Unless their play gets back to their 2018 levels, the gamble the Cowboys made on them failed.
 

John813

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Good catch, I was thinking he was here for his rookie year.

Yea, it was Rod-Leon Lett(DL)-Bloom(LB)-Richard(DB) for 2018.

Back when we thought we had a possible future DC candidate in Bloom. Then he and Richard fought in 2019 and that was that.
 

fivetwos

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These two are the biggest mystery to me.

They were incredible in 2018. Then zero.

I do think theres a certain element to how things are in Dallas as far as having a small amount of success, then reading your own headlines and mailing it in...

I dont know if that's the issue here or not. Probably not. Head scratcher. Usually people dont forget how to play.
 

Whiskey Cowboy

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D-line play was solid in 2018 and the linebackers looked great. D-line sucks now and the linebackers look bad. It's crazy how that works. It's almost like how the offense looks terrible now that the entire line is out. Contrary to popular belief, there us a correlation. But sure, let's continue to pile on Smith and LVE.
 

Cmac

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One of them got injured, the other one got paid. Two scenarios that have at times taken the drive to play out of the player in our organization.
.....and the third one in street clothes again.
 

FVSTONE

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..remember Jaylon and LVE were considered a top LB core 2018? They were playing lights out. Making tackles, stopping runs, defending plays..etc. I couldn't believe it and thought we got finally blessed with winning formula in our LB spot.

.....>>>fast forward, they have basically disappeared as fast as they appeared. What happened? Coaching? Talent? Bad Luck? The Jones family? Or its just to complicated?

....I'm going with the complicated part.
Watch the clips of Jaylen Smith, it's mind boggling how poor his reads are, he's consistently over running plays, he can't seem to get off his blocks. It looks like O-Linemen are super glued to him. It honestly looks like he doesn't have a clue 85% of the time. When LVE was healthy Smith looked like a world beater out there and now that LVE is dealing with health issues Smith can't up his game. That's how the NFL PRO BOWLERS work in this league, when a man is down or struggling they up the level of their play, unfortunately for us we're finding out the hard way that Jaylen Smith doesn't have another level in his tool box. It appears on this team he's a bust!
 

GenoT

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All three of Lee, Jaylon and LVE had injury flags coming out of college (check the numerous injury interruptions of Lee’s career).

Typical Jones SOP: cut corners on defense by signing talented players who have either injury concerns (see those named above) or off-field issues (Pac Man, McClain, Hardy, Irving, Gregory).
 

DuncanIso

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..remember Jaylon and LVE were considered a top LB core 2018? They were playing lights out. Making tackles, stopping runs, defending plays..etc. I couldn't believe it and thought we got finally blessed with winning formula in our LB spot.

.....>>>fast forward, they have basically disappeared as fast as they appeared. What happened? Coaching? Talent? Bad Luck? The Jones family? Or its just to complicated?

....I'm going with the complicated part.

LVE played hard in the Skins game. No lack of effort from LVE.

We should move back to more 4-3-4. That 3rd LB would help the run D.
 

jwooten15

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I legitimately do think that Jaylon cares more about business ventures and entrepreneurship than football.

Which is fine and all, but it makes him look like a literal thief for taking that contract extension and then becoming a terrible football player.

There really is no other explanation for it. Jaylon plays to not get hurt and he’s football-dumb; those are two of the worst qualities a LB can possibly have
 
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