Dallas announced early in the offseason that they plan on moving Jaylon Smith to strongside linebacker this season. Middle linebacker and the weakside ‘backer are the two most important linebacker positions in the Cowboys’ defense, so Smith’s role as a prototypical linebacker could be greatly diminished at the SAM. However, if the Cowboys turn Smith into a hybrid pass rusher, we can see his value to the Cowboys greatly increase.
Obviously, having three linebackers with blazing sideline-to-sideline speed isn’t a bad thing; especially when all three have some injury concerns. But, when healthy, converting Jaylon Smith to a hybrid pass-rushing Sam linebacker could bring the Cowboys defense to the next level. Think of Seattle’s defense when they had
Bruce Irvin— someone who played that exact role, and played it well. Kris Richard, Seattle’s old defensive coordinator, is bringing aspects of his old schemes to Dallas, and we’ve already seen him change the position of two starting players on the Cowboys defense—Smith and
Byron Jones, who is converting back to cornerback. Perhaps Richard’s true intention of moving Smith to the strongside backer was to have him in this hybrid role, all along...
Another benefit of having Smith rush the passer more frequently could be keeping him healthy. He would put less stress on his surgically-repaired knee in a pass rushing role, rather than having to cover in space, which requires a lot of lateral movement. Kris Richard likes to play a physical brand of football, and having a hybrid pass rushing Sam linebacker like Smith could be an underrated asset for Dallas’ defense moving forward.
https://thelandryhat.com/2018/05/26/dallas-cowboys-jaylon-smith-primarily-pass-rusher/
