Agreed.
Jaylon Smith is not an edge rusher. Never has been, never will be.
The coaches moved Leighton Vander Esch to Mike hoping Smith could play better as a Will. It didn't help. Smith is playing way too many snaps and is nowhere near being a game changing, cornerstone talent that we are being told to believe.
Yes, getting better DTs will help, but the coaches have to realize Smith isn't suited to be playing in coverage on passing downs full-time.
His best role might be in a 46 front.
Bradie James exploded for 8 sacks under Wade Phillips in 2008 and a lot of that production came out of 46 looks. James wasn't a talented blitzer, either, it was just the scheme and surrounding talent allowing him to shine.
The team isn't going to cut bait on Smith so soon. All we can hope for is overall improved talent around him and better scheming.
Whats most disheartening about Jaylon is how exceptionally bad his technique is. Someone with his limited agility and lateral mobility should be perfecting their technique. He should be two season into becoming a perfect tackler and fantastic with his hand work. Instead he continues to regress and try to rely on explosiveness and athleticism that isn't there. Even worse, the FO (and coaches to some extent I expect) are egging this nonsense on. He needs to be putting in incredible amounts of film study instead of working on his Instagram followers.
If he did even one thing at an elite, or very good level alot of his warts would be forgiven, but he's not above average at anything other than celebrating and chase down tackles. The latter of which he's so good at because he always gives up ground and runs from blocks putting him in downfield position where safeties should be.
Simply put, he ain't it, chief.
Worst of all, I think that Vander Esch could be an elite weak side backer, but he has to play at a position where he's below average because the team is married to Jaylon.
I'm rarely a fan of addition by subtraction, but I truly believe moving on from Jaylon would do wonders for this defense. It would be a wakeup call to the underachievers and business men, while opening up snaps and a roster spot for a real Mike.