Alex Smith says seeing if he can take a hit final hurdle in return from leg injury
He needs to get hit.
“I’ve thought that more than I can probably say,” Smith said. “That’s been in the back of my head throughout this entire process. I’ve got to go out there and get hit; I’ve got to know that, obviously, my leg is strong enough to take it.”
It’s uncertain when Smith will actually be in position to take a hit on his right leg. He broke the tibia and fibula in a November 2018 game vs. Houston, leading to 17 surgeries, near death, near amputation and what many figured was the end of his career.
But Washington activated Smith off the physically unable to perform list Sunday, putting him one step closer to an improbable comeback. There are more steps he must take. He has participated in 7-on-7 work the past two days.
“Today was the best I’ve felt out there,” Smith said.
Coach Ron Rivera said Wednesday there is no timetable for when Smith will graduate to facing nine defenders in a drill and, ultimately, full-team work. Washington wants to see how he handles a full-team pass rush situation and how quickly he can respond when needing to avoid trouble.
For Smith, it goes one step further with trusting what happens if he gets hit. With no preseason games, Smith said he might need to simulate being tackled in practice, just to ease his mind.
But he said he was “determined not to let that fear dictate my decision-making. No doubt that’s there but, for me, [it’s] choosing to move past it.”
Before he reaches that point, there’s more that Smith must show. During seven-on-seven work he’s looked like a mature quarterback. In the first two days of camp, he’s been largely accurate; Rivera likes how he gets his feet moving in synch with his eyes – improving the accuracy. Rivera referred to him Tuesday as a wily veteran and it shows. Wednesday, his three snaps in seven-on-seven red zone work featured quick decision-making and completed throws, mostly within 10 yards of the line. Tuesday, he snapped off one throw over the middle that led to him pumping his fist, the one time he showed emotion.
But he’s also not facing a pass rush. Which remains the key.
“The biggest thing for him is always gonna be about the footwork — the quick feet, making quick decisions, stuff like that,” Rivera said. “We’ve got to that and we’ve got to see how he’s moving. “
Rivera said they’ll ease him back into 11-on-11 work. But he wants him facing nine defenders at some point so they can simulate a pass rush for him — and he can know where the pressure is coming from as the rushers are unblocked — without the threat of being hit.
“So we can watch his movements as he escapes,” Rivera said. “With him everything’s a process; everything’s a step forward; everything’s about his foot speed, his quickness, his decision-making. He’s done a great job.
“We’re not trying to hurry anybody through; that’s why there is no timeline. We want to make sure if he has to play, he can protect himself.”
Rivera said he and Smith have talked a couple of times about what they want to see — mainly, how Smith protects himself.
“For me to sit there and say what his physical risks are — I’m not the doctor,” Rivera said. “We listened to what the doctor told us. You don’t ever want to put a player at risk, and that’s what I’m concerned with — that I’m not putting him at risk. I just want to make sure — based on what I’ve seen, based on what I’ve heard — we can sit there and make the right decision to whether play him or not.”
Smith also has drop foot — a result of neurological or muscular damage — and his right foot can be difficult to lift and can drag. Because of that he said he’ll always have to wear an AFO brace to stabilize his foot. Whether that hinders his ability to escape in the pocket remains to be seen.
Dallas linebacker Jaylon Smith wore a brace because of drop foot in the 2017 season, but removed it for the following year. The Denver Nuggets’ Michael Porter, Jr., also developed drop foot and wears a brace.
“That’s something that 10, 15 years ago, that was a death sentence for your career,” Smith said. “To have guys go out there and play in an AFO, to see Jaylon Smith go out there and to do what he’s done as a young guy, to go see what Michael Porter Jr. is doing right now wearing an AFO. Those guys are inspirational to me, to see if I can go do this. I do feel like I owe some level to push this as far as it can go for whoever may come after.”
Smith said he feels more comfortable each day he spends on the field. He also knows he’s traveled quite a road just to reach this point. He admitted having “why me” moments when he was in the hospital. He’d wake up every morning, remember what happened and then face his new reality.
“It kind of hits you again every single day, like, nah, this is really real,” he said, “and it’s not coming back; there’s no going back; this is what I’ve got moving forward for the rest of my life. Those emotions were those first few months, and it took a while to get over. That was part of, obviously, being comfortable with what my life, my new normal, is, and then from there moving forward.”
But it’s not as if it was a smooth journey.
“You build up a lot of walls in your head as far as what you’ll ever be able to do again,” he said. “And then finally, you get over that crest, I guess, and start trying to knock those walls down slowly as they come. It took a long, long time before I could even look at my leg.”
And, now, he’s back on an NFL field trying to win a roster spot. He’s been pleased with his progressions, his execution of handoffs.
“The next progression is certainly the unchoreographed things,” he said. “The time the pocket breaks down and you get pushed back. There’s a lot of different scenarios that come up. It’s hard to drill all those things. Just getting back to a point where it does break down, do you have what it takes there to save the play, find success, whatever that outcome is, escape the pocket things like that.”
If he can show that, then Smith can enter the quarterback competition. For now, it’s been Dwayne Haskins working with the starters.
“I’ve played quarterback a long time in the back of my head, you wonder if I’ll be able to do again, and it’s still sitting out there,” Smith said. “And you get closer and closer to it, I think, just feels it even more; it’d be like running a marathon and getting close to the end of the race. I think even more, that competitiveness kicks in; and I want to see if I can do it.”
But, he said, one step at a time. He doesn’t want to rush the process.
“It will reveal itself,” Smith said. “We get filmed every single day, we watch tape every single day. It’s always obvious, I think, if you can do it or not — for everybody. I don’t think it’ll be any different for me.”