Sources: Jaylon Smith's health concerns multiple NFL teams

ByJeff Legwold and Adam Schefter ESPN logo
Sunday, February 28, 2016

INDIANAPOLIS -- After medical exams at the NFL's scouting combine on Friday, multiple teams continue to have concerns about Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith's recovery from a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee after questions have arisen regarding possible nerve damage, sources told ESPN.

Multiple teams have made the decision to fail Smith on the physical after his exam on Friday, and sources with three teams at the combine said they do not intend to draft Smith.

Smith arrived to the combine uncertain whether he will heal enough from his knee surgery to play in the 2016 season, but now there have been questions over whether a possible nerve condition will further affect his draft status.

Smith said Friday that he did not suffer nerve damage when the injury occurred and that it will just take time for the injury to heal.

"The nerve wasn't stretched at all. It's just the healing game. That's all," Smith said Friday. "It's a process. I'll be back 100 percent. We just don't know when."

But that was before Smith had the battery of medical exams every prospect undergoes at the combine. Later, after repeated questioning, Smith said: "I don't know when the nerve and everything will heal, but it's just a matter of me taking it day by day and controlling what I can control."

As a player coming off surgery, Smith is scheduled to return to Indianapolis in April for a medical recheck.

Smith said he had surgery seven weeks ago to repair his knee ligaments.

While walking around Lucas Oil Stadium for the combine, Smith has been seen in an ankle/foot orthosis brace -- a device ESPN injury analyst and physical therapist Stephania Bell said is used specifically to treat issues in the ankle and foot, given that it supports the foot and helps the toes clear the floor to walk. According to Bell, nerves don't have to be torn during an injury like Smith's knee injury to be damaged, and nerves are "unpredictable tissue" when it comes to healing.

Before the injury, teams had Smith as a potential first-round pick, and many teams had him among the top 15 players on the board.

Smith, who entered the draft as a junior, has a $5 million loss-of-value insurance policy and would have the possibility to collect on at least some benefit if he is not selected in the first round, sources told ESPN's Darren Rovell last month.

Smith landed awkwardly during a play early in the Fighting Irish's New Year's Day game against Ohio State. He was the Butkus Award winner this past season as the nation's best linebacker and was the Irish's leading tackler.

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