NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Jaylon Smith is such a good linebacker, he could rate as the best player in the 2016 NFL draft.

Trouble is he won’t likely play in 2016 as a result of a terrible knee injury he suffered in Notre Dame's bowl game.

Such a prospect usually falls to a good team that has the luxury of waiting out a redshirt year.

The Tennessee Titans are not a good team. They are a team in dire need of help.

But they are also now a team that has three second-round picks -- No. 33 (their own) and No. 43 and No. 45, which were part of the package Tennessee got from the Los Angeles Rams in a trade for the No. 1 pick.

With that much second-round capital, if the Titans don’t use any of it to make a trade up, they could certainly afford to take the long view on Smith and draft a redshirt guy.

Of course, they’d have to feel good about the course of his recovery. They’d have to get to the bottom of reports that say the injury included nerve damage. But if they feel like Smith will be in line to make a big entrance into the NFL -- just not until 2017 -- using pick No. 33 or 43 or 45 on him can make great sense.

ESPN.com’s scouting report says Smith is "a sideline-to-sideline run defender, he has excellent cover skills, and he's a far more disruptive pass rusher than the numbers suggest.”

He's a versatile playmaker whom NFL.com compares to Derrick Johnson and says can play any linebacker spot in a 3-4.

Smith sounds like a guy well worth waiting on, especially if two other second-round picks are making plays for the team during the year he sits out.