Cowboys Won’t Re-Sign Aldon Smith

Aldon Smith made an impressive comeback to the NFL last season, but if he wants a go around, it won’t be with the Cowboys. Dallas has informed the defensive end that they’ll be moving on from him and won’t re-sign him, a source told Ed Werder of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

It’s interesting because Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made it sound like back in November that he wanted to keep Smith in the fold. Werder noted in a follow-up tweet that the Cowboys’ desire to give Randy Gregory an expanded role and their recent signing of defensive end Tarell Baham both played a part in the decision.

Once one of the best pass-rushers in the league, Smith hadn’t played since the 2015 season before improbably returning to the field last year. Considering it was his first game action in five years he played pretty well, racking up 48 tackles, five sacks, and a couple of fumble recoveries.

The seventh overall pick of the 2011 draft, Smith became a star right away with the 49ers and was a firs-team All-Pro in 2012 when he had an eye-popping 19.5 sacks. Unfortunately, off-field issues quickly derailed his career and caused him to miss games in every season after that.

After a third DUI arrest in 2015, Smith was cut by the 49ers and signed with the Raiders, playing in nine games for them that season. It would be his last NFL action for a while. Suspended numerous times and denied reinstatement often, he finally made it back last year.

The 31-year-old showed last year he’s still got something in the tank, and it’ll be interesting to see who takes a flyer on his upside.

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