The silver and blue elephant staring at the Dallas Cowboys are a pair of potential busts that could cripple an average defense.
Without knowing what to make of Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch, how should the Cowboys' braintrust handle the 2020 NFL draft over Zoom calls from their respective living rooms?
Because they have no choice other than to hope, and pray, for the best. There are too many other needs than to acknowledge that their best young linebackers from 2018 are possibly no more.
If you don't think either LVE or Smith, or both, are essentially finished, please turn to the 2013 page of your Dallas Cowboys yearbook and look at Bruce Carter and Sean Lee.
This can happen.
In 2012 and 2013, the Cowboys thought they had the makings of one of the best young linebacker units in the game with Lee and Carter.
When they were right, they were good. They were young, athletic, could make plays in space and at the line of scrimmage.
NBC NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth called them two of the best young linebackers in the game.
Lee battled injuries for much of his career, and Carter never fully developed into an elite playmaking linebacker.
The pair lasted together for what essentially just the 2012 and '13 seasons. Carter left the Cowboys after 2014, and played for the Bucs, Jets, and Falcons through 2018.
Both came to the Cowboys after having injury issues in their collegiate careers, Lee at Penn State and Carter at North Carolina.
Now we are in 2020, and while Lee remains with the team his best days are gone. He has been a good player, and it was never his fault his body didn't always cooperated.
It's 2020, and the Cowboys' best young linebackers are a point of concern when one year ago when they were the foundation of the entire defense.
They are two promising young players who came to the Cowboys after injury issues in their collegiate careers, Smith at Notre Dame and LVE at Boise State.
In 2018, Smith looked fully healed from the torn ACL he suffered in the Fiesta Bowl in January of 2016. The gamble the Cowboys took to select him in the second round of the '16 draft hit.
Coming out of Boise State, LVE's injury was a constant source of speculation, and that some teams said they would not draft him because of concerns about his future.
In 2016, Vander Esch missed half of the season with a neck injury. He played all of the '17 season, and the Cowboys followed their history and took the risk by using their first-round pick on LVE in the 2018 draft.
In 2018, it all worked. LVE was one of the NFL's top rookie defensive players.
And Smith, after he played in all 16 games in 2017, made a visible difference with the 2018 squad. He was dynamic. He made plays at the line, and in space. He played like a guy who was expected to be a top 10 pick.
In that 2018 season, the Cowboys' ranked sixth in the NFL in points allowed, and 16th in turnovers forced. The team won the NFC East, and advanced to the NFC divisional round.
But in 2019 something changed.
Smith agreed to five-year, $64 million extension in the offseason, and for the second consecutive year he started all 16 games.
While the tackle numbers increased, the plays did not. Something was off. The run defense suffered, and Smith struggled shedding blocks and was routinely taken out by opposing blockers.
The defense ranked tied for last in the NFL in interceptions, and 26th in turnovers. It was an average defense that did not make plays.
After a solid performance in Week 1, LVE never looked right. On Oct. 20, 2019, he had a "nerve issue" in his neck. He would miss the final seven games of the season.
In January, he had surgery on his neck. For a football player, there is no such thing as a minor neck surgery. His condition involves the narrowing of the spinal canal.
He was supposed to be ready in time for all football activity by the start of training camp. With the coronavirus effectively shutting down the world, no one knows if camps will start on time.
The Cowboys are hoping that the setbacks that both Smith and LVE suffered in 2019 are minor, and that they are what they showed in 2018.
Because the Cowboys have so many other needs, they can't address the position high in the this year's draft.
If Smith and LVE return to the form they displayed in 2018, it may solve many of the Cowboys' problems on defense. But if they are the second coming of Carter and Lee, the Cowboys have major problems ahead.
