News of the New Orleans Saints signing veteran linebacker Jaylon Smith drew mixed reviews on Thursday, with some fans criticizing the move as something of little consequence while others celebrated the addition of an experienced pro. Smith’s NFL career hasn’t met expectations after a catastrophic knee injury ended his college career, but he’s still carved out a role for himself on some good defenses with the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants and occasionally earned Pro Bowl recognition.
So how can he find success in 2023? There’s actually already a blueprint for him in place. The Saints have gotten quality reps out of veteran backups before — guys like Manti Te’o, Kiko Alonso, and Craig Robertson, just to name a few. None of them were starters. Smith won’t be starting, either. But just like his predecessors, all he needs to do to make this move a positive is avoid making mistakes when the Saints call his number. Be ready when it’s his time, then get out there and execute his assignments. Don’t make mistakes.
And he’s done a great job of playing mistake-free football throughout his career. Pro Football Focus charting found that Smith missed just 7.3% of his career tackles, and that he’s allowed just 6 touchdown passes on 2,454 snaps when dropping back into coverage. For context, last year Demario Davis missed 14.4% of his tackles and yielded 2 touchdown passes. Pete Werner missed 11.7% of his tackles and gave up 2 touchdowns of his own in coverage.
Smith has a reputation as a dirty player (not helped by his infamous illegal hit on Alvin Kamara back in 2018), but he’s only been penalized 14 times in his seven-year pro career, and he hasn’t been flagged at all in each of the last two seasons. That’s something he identified early on as a weakness in his game and worked to correct.
Barring an extended absence for Davis or Werner, Smith isn’t going to play a ton of snaps this season. The Saints prefer to run nickel or dime defensive personnel to field more defensive backs than linebackers, and that isn’t going to change given their depth in the secondary. If Smith only plays 12 to 15 snaps per game and doesn’t look like a liability, that’s a win for all involved. He doesn’t need to be a starter or look to bag 100 tackles. He just needs to do his job well.
