Giants At Cowboys - Who Need More From 'Courageous' Jaylon

FRISCO - Having gotten to know Jaylon Smith fairly well over his years in Dallas, I can fairly say this about him: The Cowboys linebacker has a knack for harboring an almost ridiculously optimistic world view ... while also, privately, being highly demanding of himself when it comes to making the world better.

You can see it in his visit with the DFW media, in which, ahead of Sunday's NFL Week 5 visit from the New York Giants, Jaylon talks of a football world that is "great'' - but needs to be "greater.''

“I believe execution on every single play, doing my job on every single play,” Smith said. “I believe getting my guys to sprint to the ball, myself sprinting to the ball, that extra effort, that strain. It has to be done. And it’s on us. And we’re taking responsibility. And we’re getting it right and we’re going to get it right. So looking forward to Sunday, but right now, we’re grinding.”

"We're getting it right.'' And, "We're going to get it right.''

The first statement is an almost ridiculously optimistic view of the Dallas defense, which is in many categories the NFL's worst. The second statement is about a promise that becomes a demand ... founded in hope.

Speaking of the ability to speak hyperbolically, along comes owner Jerry Jones and his defense of Jaylon.

“I think Jaylon Smith has been courageous,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said this week on 105.3 The Fan. “I’ll use that word right there, in his performance. He gives you everything that he’s got.

“I’ll say without question, he has the talent to be the middle linebacker on a winning, championship team.”

There is no reason not to believe that - but that's not the point. This isn't about "winning a championship'' right now; it's about a 1-3 team trying to win a second game. Smith has piled up tackles, but the Cowboys are also well aware of the tackles he's missed, the penalties he's incurred and the potential for opponents to target him in coverage.

The Cowboys have a basic level of grading for their defensive players, coordinator Mike Nolan said. After film review, a player is tagged as having had 1) "a winning effort,'' 2) a "did your job'' or 3) "a losing effort.'' Nolan said all of Jaylon's performances have been in the first two categories.

“This is the honest truth: I don’t know why Jaylon takes the criticism he does,” Nolan said this week. “He’s a good football player. He plays extremely hard. I think he has improved. Look, I’d be the first to say it. I always call it like I see it. But Jaylon, look, nobody has played a perfect game for us thus far, and I don’t think they will. And, naturally, as bad a game as (last Sunday) was, certainly no one played a winning-grade performance.”

Where does the criticism come from? Maybe, as with another public target, DeMarcus Lawrence, it's about the money. Tank makes $20 million a year, so the fact that he's playing hurt (knee) is lost on some critics. Meanwhile, Smith is playing under a six-year, $68 million contract extension signed a year ago, making him one of the league’s highest-paid linebackers - and expectations are raised there. Maybe it's his celebratory "swipe'' gesture, which critics think is poorly-timed when displayed while the scoreboard is lopsided. Maybe it's because the bloom is off the rose when it comes to his miraculous knee-injury-recovery story.

Maybe, most of all, it's because Dallas is 1-3.

Jaylon Smith thinks most everything is alright but that most everything is going to be better. He and the Cowboys don't need to be "courageous'' to accomplish that; for starters, they simply need to be better than the winless Giants.