Lee - Vander Esch - Smith

[DHCBF66]

Fans have a conflict between what they're seeing and what they actually want to see.

If Jaylon had been an UDFA and played like he did, they would be asking for his release.

Jaylon played in about 1/3 of the Cowboys defensive plays last year and had 80 plus tackles with a brace on his leg. Imagine what he is going to do without the brace playing full time!

 

[Nightman]

DAL plans to redefine the SAM role to accommodate JSmith and get his skills on the field along with SLee at WILL and LVE at MIKE

It is as strong a group there is in the league

JSmith hit the rookie wall last year but his level of play increased exponentially as the year went on

@Trouty I don't care what Sturm said .....I played LB and watched football my whole life and JSmith was 10x better by year's end..... he was thrown in the deep end to start the year and was overwhelmed mentally and uneasy physically.......once the game slowed and he knew he could trust his knee it was on

Having a big MIKE like LVE will allow Lee and Smith to pursue from sideline to sideline..... I see JSmith as pass rusher from the SAM as well and it will be JSmith and SLee handling the Nickel, not LVE

 

[Nightman]

Shows smith played 30% or more of the defensive snaps in all but 5 games including the last 3 where he dipped to less than 20 snaps each game.

The team was smart to protect him..... he was a redshirt freshman with a huge injury

Limiting his snaps was like setting an IP limit for a Starting Pitcher in MLB...you don't slam him into the rookie wall

It is called protecting your assets.........JSmith will dominate this year

 

[ItzKelz]

And if always went by that we'd always have superstars.

But we THINK that LVE and every other 1st draft pick in the history of the game will be good in the NFL based on evaluation of said players college career and measurables.

 

[TNCowboy]

If Smith sees the field a lot, it's going to be a long season.

 

[DHCBF66]

My take on Jaylon....

Some fans (including myself) were not happy with the Cowboys drafting a injured player who was unable to produce right away in the 2nd round.

Therefor since they did not like the pick, they will not like the player regardless of what happens. I like the kid, he has worked hard and stayed positive to get ready to play at the next level. I will not hate on the kid because I did not like the FO picking him where they did.

Some will refuse to give the kid a shot because they did not like him being drafted as an injured player!

 

[TNCowboy]

My take on Jaylon....

Some fans (including myself) were not happy with the Cowboys drafting a injured player who was unable to produce right away in the 2nd round.

Therefor since they did not like the pick, they will not like the player regardless of what happens. I like the kid, he has worked hard and stayed positive to get ready to play at the next level. I will not hate on the kid because I did not like the FO picking him where they did.

Some will refuse to give the kid a shot because they did not like him being drafted as an injured player!

And some of us dislike his play because it was dreadful. If he weren't a high draft pick the Jones were desperate to prove was a steal, he'd have barely seen the field last year.

 

[DHCBF66]

And some of us dislike his play because it was dreadful. If he weren't a high draft pick the Jones were desperate to prove was a steal, he'd have barely seen the field last year.

Did you expect a pro bowler playing part time with a brace on his leg?

 

[charron]

The team was smart to protect him..... he was a redshirt freshman with a huge injury

Limiting his snaps was like setting an IP limit for a Starting Pitcher in MLB...you don't slam him into the rookie wall

It is called protecting your assets.........JSmith will dominate this year

Lee and hitch were simply better than smith. I hope he dominates as you say cause he sure didnt last year.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Is it just me, or does that look pretty sweet!!!

It looks solid to me. Not to mention some of the UDFAs that we got like Joel Lanning, who was very underrated.

 

[Ddisco22]

LVE and Sean Lee are every down backs.

If Jaylon is getting a lot of playing time, something has gone horribly wrong.

If you guys want to blindly believe he'll be good one day because of pics on Twitter of him working out without a brace, suit yourselves.

We are assuming he catches on fast, which is expected. I think Smith had a great first year.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Hot take: Jaylon Smith is closer to Bobby Carpenter than LVE. Yeah, he’ll have a big hit now and then, but play in and play out he’s avoiding blockers and creating holes. Finesse.

The law firm of Lee, Vander Esch and Bowman would have sounded better.

We can still sign Bowman, and I hope we do.

 

[blindzebra]

post to likes ratio checks out

So you say stupid stuff that other idiots like, big deal.

 

[buybuydandavis]

FYI- as per Pro Football Reference, here are 2017 defensive snap counts:

No fair! You got facts all over The Narrative!

 

[LocimusPrime]

Smith will be on the bench 75% of snaps

Yes sir

 

[LocimusPrime]

Well he was on the bench 80% of snaps when Lee and Hitchens were available in the last few games of the year. If he couldn't beat out Anthony Hitchens, I sure hope he doesn't beat out our stud #1 pick.

Excellent points. I think that smith will definately get less snaps than Lee and LVE, that’s obvious. I’m hoping smith plays around 350-400 snaps this year.

Good stuff Kumizi

 

[cowboyec]

excited to see Smith and LVE over the years develop into something special,I think.

 

[LocimusPrime]

Bowman is still in play. He is still unsigned.

I like bowman a lot!

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

One is a rookie, one is still not at the level that he needs to be to be worth a second round pick, and one will play in about 8-10 games.

Maybe everything goes perfectly for all 3! When was the last time everyone met their potential?

 

[buybuydandavis]

DAL plans to redefine the SAM role to accommodate JSmith and get his skills on the field along with SLee at WILL and LVE at MIKE
...
Having a big MIKE like LVE will allow Lee and Smith to pursue from sideline to sideline..... I see JSmith as pass rusher from the SAM as well and it will be JSmith and SLee handling the Nickel, not LVE

Particularly with his injury making it hard for him to break down and cut laterally, Jaylon was a bad fit for MLB. But let him drive and cut off the edge, and he made plays even injured. Shutting down the edge is what he's best at, injured or not. And we put him at MLB.

He makes so much more sense at SAM, where he protects the edge and occasionally blitzes. The move to SAM made sense even before we got LVE.

I like it *generally* from a personnel perspective. Having the guy on the edge be the disposable cheapo player left the other guy having to go from MLB to a nickel cover LB, two roles that require different player characteristics. Edge players match to the speed, agility, and smaller sizes of a nickel cover LB. You want size and stopping power at MLB. Much more natural to have the MLB be a run stuffing specialist, and take him off the field in nickel situations. Stout tackling machines are easy to find and not really sought after because of their limitations in coverage. But let them only play in the base, with LBs who *can* cover on either side of them, and you're covered for your coverage needs while you get great run defense. We should have always been doing it that way if were going to cheap out on one LB spot.

I'm not sure who will play nickel now, because I'm not sure if Jaylon is fully recovered yet, or ever will be. And LVE is supposed to be very good in coverage himself, so he's real competition for play time in nickel.

But Jaylon was supposed to have elite coverage skills for a LB of his size, particularly in man coverage. If healthy enough, he'll certainly be in nickel when they want man coverage, even if there still might be competition in zone. They're all good.