USA TODAY International Edition
Career turnaround
Cowboys receiver Devin Smith scores again
Devin Smith Jr.’ s questions began in August.
His father had scored a touchdown while in Hawaii for the Cowboys’ preseason game against the Rams. Fouryear- old Devin Jr. was ecstatic. He began asking his dad every day when he came home from practices or games: Did you score today?
For 28 days, the answer – as it related to meaningful, game- day points – was no. Until Sunday.
So when Devin Smith Sr. walked through the door of his home Sunday night, fresh off the Cowboys’ flight from a 31- 21 win at Washington, Devin Jr. wasted no time celebrating his father’s 51- yard TD that began a streak of five series on which the Cowboys scored.
“Daddy, I seen your touchdown,” Junior told Senior, running up to hug his father.
“With the biggest smile on his father,” Senior told USA TODAY Sports on Monday. “I loved it.”
For Devin Smith Sr., the touchdown ended a drought dating back far more than 28 days.
When the Jets selected Smith in the second round of the 2015 draft, the Ohio State product was coming off a national championship campaign to which he’d contributed 33 catches for 931 yards and 12 scores. He tallied one touchdown in November 2015 as a rookie. Then he tore his right ACL. Smith would tear it again in April 2017. Smith spent a year on injured reserve before the Jets waived him in July 2018. Calls from teams around training camp, he said, never materialized into a 2018 contract.
Smith hit a low.
For a full month or two, he estimates, he didn’t go outside. He would work out and come home to play with his daughter and son but go nowhere else in between. Some days, Smith was sure his routes looked terrible and his knee felt off. He tried to brush off down days and draw confidence from the workouts during which he was more easily able to get in and out of his cuts. His mom and his girlfriend, Aliysha, encouraged him to stay focused. But he’d watch teammates from his days with Ohio State and the Jets play in the NFL. It hurt.
“I was so down just seeing everyone playing,” Smith said Sunday after his first NFL catch in three years and first TD in four. “I got real low on myself at times, really thinking about if I’m going to be able to come back and play again.
“Just like: What am I going to do with my life now? I can’t play football, what am I going to do? I’ve got two little ones I’m looking after, a whole family to look after, so it was just a hard time.”
So when the Cowboys invited Smith for a visit in January, requiring a physical but no workout, Smith was ecstatic. He relished “getting my feet wet again” in offseason activities and then putting on helmet and shoulder pads to run routes in training camp. Ezekiel Elliott told fellow Cowboys players that Smith, his ex- Buckeyes teammate, was special.
On Sunday, Smith “proved that he belonged here,” Elliott said from the postgame locker room.
Smith’s featured play came on 2ndand- 7 with 6: 18 to play in the second quarter. The Cowboys hadn’t yet scored, previous drives killed by an interception and a sack. Smith lined up outside on the left, with Washington corner Josh Norman defending him. He sprinted toward the end zone, cutting in near field’s end, as Prescott hauled a bomb to hit him in stride within the 10. Smith rolled into the end zone.
Prescott admired how his receiver “put the boosters on” to create separation from Norman.
“Devin got an opportunity,” Prescott said. “That play wasn’t necessarily, ‘ Let’s put Dev in to go throw this play.’ … He got open and it became his play.”
The significance of Smith’s return resonated with Prescott, who became a starter in high school, college and NFL each time when the man in front of him was injured.
“It’s an inspiration,” Prescott said. “Injuries can hurt careers and sometimes derail them. People could never bounce back. In this case you found a guy who this off-season, this preseason, this training camp really got his confidence back. Forgot about those injuries, forgot about all those things and the reasons maybe he couldn’t do it.”
Instead, against the Redskins, Smith showed what he could do. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lauded Smith’s ability to track a deep ball and adjust, complementing speed with natural ball skills. Smith caught two more catches on a fourth- quarter drive that lifted the Cowboys to 31- 14 and tied Smith’s career high for three receptions in a game. His 70 yards in the win nearly doubled his previous high of 39 on Sept. 27, 2015.
And the Cowboys believe he’s just getting started. In the immediate near future, the team will need help at receiver with Tavon Austin battling concussion symptoms and Michael Gallup expected to miss two to four weeks after surgery scheduled for Tuesday on a torn meniscus, multiple outlets reported Monday. Smith also expects a spirited game of catch with Devin Jr. when he gets his touchdown ball back from the equipment staff. The team owner thinks more await.
“I think he is living up to his pedigree,” Jones said. “That is how he made plays at Ohio State. You saw a classic out there today, and that really adds a dimension for Dak and our offense. He’s got a big future.”