Jon Machota and Brandon George of The Dallas Morning News take a quick look the health of second-round pick Jaylon Smith, the linebacker from Notre Dame who is recovering from knee surgery.

Rookie Jaylon Smith accentuates the positive

Jon Machota: When you talk to him, you certainly get the belief that he believes not only is he going to play in the NFL, but he's going to play, as he said, at "an elite level." He's very, very confident that his knee will fully heal. The structure of the knee is sound now. He's able to rehab. He's able to work on the resistance cords with athletic trainers. The thing they're waiting for now is for his damaged nerve to recover. There's no timetable on when that exactly will happen. It's different for every person. There's no way to kind of plan around when they think he'll be back. Most people will say that it's unlikely he'll play in 2016. I think they're gonna be very cautious with him because of the upside. There's a chance he could be a star player in this league. But he doesn't know exactly when they're gonna have any more tests - or the next test at least - on his damaged nerve. The last time they had one was in April. They're just kind of playing it by ear.

Brandon George: I think the fact that he doesn't even know when the next test is gonna be ... it kind of falls in line with what the situation is with Jaylon Smith. No one really knows when he's gonna be able to come back. If you talk to people in the Cowboys' organization, pretty much everybody is on the same page. It's unlikely that Jaylon Smith plays at all in 2016 and will be back next season. It's gonna be a slow process for Jaylon. One thing ... Jaylon was talking about Sean Lee. He's really been impressed with Sean Lee, and he's already picking up (tips) from Sean Lee, even off the field. And we had a chance to catch up with Sean Lee, and he was the same way. He's really been impressed so far with Jaylon Smith. He thinks he's a really intelligent player. He thinks he's gonna be able to get back to form, not going to be an issue. He thinks he's going to be, what he called, an unbelievable player when he gets back on the field. Sean Lee also said he went back and watched a lot of college tape of Jaylon Smith at Notre Dame and knows how dominant he can be.

Jon Machota: Obviously, if this works out for the Cowboys and Jaylon Smith comes back from the injury and he ends up being that All-American type linebacker that he was at Notre Dame, then the Cowboys got a steal. This guy is just a rare breed. This guy doesn't get hurt, he's going top five. He might have even went in the top three. He represents kind of what the linebacker position is now in the NFL. Gone are the days of your middle linebacker that's just kind of sitting there and they're run stuffers and just work along the line of scrimmage. You gotta be able to turn and defend in the passing game. You gotta be this freak athlete, almost like a LeBron James type, where you gotta be a bigger guy but you gotta be able to move like a smaller guy. Jaylon Smith does all of that. The impact that he could make if he is healthy going forward, alongside Sean Lee, is huge because of the fact that in the NFL today teams are primarily in nickel situations, so you really aren't using more than two linebackers very often. For those two linebackers to be an elite Sean Lee and an elite Jaylon Smith, the Cowboys would be in very good position for the foreseeable future.

Brandon George: And the best thing really Jaylon Smith can do is follow Sean Lee around while he's off the field. There's no one that puts in the time off the field that Sean Lee puts in as far as studying film and really learning the defense, the ins and outs of the defense. Just kind of where he needs to be. He could really pick up a lot from Sean Lee in the first season with not even playing beside him. He could just follow him around, be in the film room with him. I think that's going to be very important to see that relationship develop here in that first season with Jaylon Smith.

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