FRISCO, Texas Strictly speaking, Wednesday was just another day for Jaylon Smith.

The second-year linebacker followed his usual schedule, participating in the Cowboys OTAs after taking a day off. He did a full complement of individual and special teams drills, followed by a small amount of seven-on-seven participation.

Im just doing everything Ive been doing, taking it day by day and performing at a high level, Smith said.

The difference was that Wednesdays practice was one of just three to take place in front of reporters, who are allowed to view just one OTA per week. So as far as the cameras are concerned, Wednesday marked the media has seen the young linebacker practicing since he was drafted last year.

We certainly love the progress that hes made and are excited about what hes been doing up to this point, said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. Hes getting better and better and better. Hes getting more and more comfortable with the football movements.

Its been interesting to follow Smiths progress since the Cowboys revealed their game plan for his offseason. He has practiced twice a week since OTAs started, skipping the Wednesday session. But with OTAs starting on Monday for this final week, Smith took Tuesday off and was available for the open practice.

It was pretty intense individual work and getting some seven-on-seven in, some special teams, Smith said.

Thats all incredibly encouraging to hear, but its also just one more step in what has been a long journey. Smith has obviously overcome plenty in the 15-month span since he tore both his ACL and LCL, as well as damaging his peroneal nerve in his final college football game.

But, as defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli pointed out, pads are everything and Smith hasnt quite reached that level yet.

Hes going through Stage 1 here, and its good stuff so far, Marinelli said. But to me its just step by step progress. Try not to see it more than what it is. Its just day by day progress.

That naturally poses an obvious question what is the next step. Garrett said that Smith will operate on a similar schedule during the Cowboys mandatory minicamp next week, meaning hell go through two limited practices and take one rest day.

Garrett didnt want to detail exactly what the plan would look like for training camp, but he allowed that it would probably be somewhat similar.

Well have an analogous plan. Im not going to say its going to be exactly the same, he said. But well do something like this with him and some of the other guys who are coming back from injuries.

It makes sense to be follow that approach not to give a recovering player too much before hes ready. But Garrett was asked if, at some point, he needs to find out what Smith is capable of in order to know if the Cowboys can rely on him.

Even that is a process that will play out step by step.

Within the confines of what were asking him to do, were really cutting him loose him every day, Garrett said. Hes responded so well to that. And as you go day by day and week by week, you increase the threshold.

Itll be fascinating to see how that threshold develops in the coming months, particularly when the Cowboys get to training camp and begin the grind of daily practices not to mention a whopping five preseason games.

While hes working toward those next steps, Smith said hes proud of how far hes already come.

Coming in drafted, coming off a severe injury, I understood it was going to be a process, and I truly embraced it, he said. Now that Im getting back to football, participating, being a part of the team, being a part of the guys being a part of this culture that weve built Im just embracing it.

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As OTAs Come To An End, Cowboys Encouraged By Jaylon Smith's Progress - DallasCowboys.com