Maurice Smith lost a season because of an appendectomy.
Appendectomy ‘broke me,’ the safety discloses
DAVIE — Dolphins safety Maurice Smith had things going his way last season as an undrafted rookie. Then he came down with appendicitis in December. It wasn’t a life-threatening medical situation, but it took a toll emotionally.
“It broke me,” said Smith, who ended the year on Miami’s injured reserve list.
“It took me a little bit to get mentally over it, and that’s when I really started hitting the Bible more because I didn’t have the answers. I was asking why. You want to ask why, but I just had to talk to God and He let me know, ‘This isn’t your time, it’s my time.’”
Smith now finds himself as a second-team safety playing alongside rookie safety Minkah Fitzpatrick while backing up starters Reshad Jones and T.J. McDonald. Smith seems to be ahead of safeties such as Walt Aikens and Jordan Lucas.
Smith, who graduated from Alabama and transferred to Georgia for his senior season, signed with Miami on May 5, 2017. He has a decent chance to make Miami’s 53-man regularseason roster, but, like many younger players, must make his name on special teams.
“I think his confidence level is extremely high right now,” coach Adam Gase said. “He understands the defense. It’s allowing him to play faster. He’s in unbelievable shape. He’s probably one of our best-conditioned athletes that we have in the building. He’s really put himself in position to compete for a spot.
“He’s in one of those unusual positions as far as it’s a deep group and it’s really going to be ‘yes, you can play safety but can you contribute on special teams?’ Because that’s really where he’s at in his career right now, where we need him to be able to do multiple things and we need him to be able to contribute on special teams.”
One key for Smith will be having a good showing in Thursday’s preseason opener against Tampa Bay. If he does that, he’ll be one his way to his two goals for the 2018 season.
“If I get on the field,” he began, “I want to get two interceptions, and then I want to be the leading tackler on the team in special teams.
“And obviously you try to shoot to not mess up as many times, not have any mental errors and stuff like that, so that’s also another goal I have.”
To that end, Smith got in his playbook in a way that’s never done before during the offseason.
“Every night I tried to spend at least an hour in my playbook and on my iPad,” Smith said. “So I’d go about 30 minutes on my playbook and 30 minutes on my iPad watching film. I still try to do that now. I’ve upped it to about an hour and a half, each year I’m going to try to progress on that.”
Smith committed to doing his homework five nights a week. “And six most of the time,” he added. “I try not to on Saturday, but I end up finding myself doing it.”
Smith could get caught up in the so-called numbers game when the final 53-man roster is announced (he could be the victim of Miami needing to keep, say, six wide receivers, or four running backs).
But Smith has just as good a chance of making the team, and the reason is his preparation.
“Really, it’s the mental,” he said. “Once again I just ask God to keep me physically strong and then also just keep me mentally strong. And He lets me know I don’t have to worry about anything.”