Posted by Mike Fisher himself:
By Mike Fisher
I’ve reported it all a skillion (a Jerry Jones pet number) times:
*Jaylon Smith has dropfoot.
*There is “medical hope’’ regarding the nerve in his knee firing, but there are no guarantees.
*The suggestion that he can play with a brace on his foot and ankle to supplement the feeling in the knee and stabilize the dropfoot is a theory, not a fact.
“I think the sky’s the limit,’’ said COO Stephen Jones on Tuesday from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “I think he’s got a great opportunity, if he keeps on his current path, to be a dominant player for us.’’
But what is that “current path’’? Smith, the team’s second-round pick from 2016 who spent all of last year on the sidelines working and praying toward a comeback, promises there has been improvement in his “feeling’’ in his knee; he told me that in early January. I wrote it … and I believe it.
But now comes out colleague Ian Rapaport noting the lack of full improvement in that “firing’’ process, and some skepticism about Smith’s true future.
Stephen noted honestly, “Now to say I expect that (being a dominant player) when he’s not there yet? That’s tough to have that expectation. But I think we do expect him to contribute and be a big part of our defense this year.”
That’s lovely. But there is no established proof that a player can participate in a real NFL game with an AFO (ankle-foot orthotics) allowing the use of his foot.
Jaylon, 21, is now more of a weight-room freak that ever. He’s a magnificent and faith-based person and an incredible story waiting to happen.
“It’s doing great deeds,’’ Jaylon told me.
But he was talking about his nerve, not his foot.
Playing pro football without a fully-fired nerve and without a fully-functional foot?
That would be among the great deeds of all.
