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O-Zone Podcast: Defensive end Dawuane Smoot · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone podcast presented by by Star Credit Union,
0:13
Speaker 1: featuring Jaguars senior writer John Oser and executive producer Dave
0:17
Speaker 1: de Candice. This week's guests excited about talking to him because, frankly,
0:23
Speaker 1: I haven't had a chance to talk to him a
0:24
Speaker 1: whole lot over his career. He hasn't been a starter
0:28
Speaker 1: until until the last couple of years. He was a
0:31
Speaker 1: guy that on a defensive line was sort of overshadowed
0:35
Speaker 1: at times by play as Campbell unique in Gockway, but
0:38
Speaker 1: for Jaguars observers and people who watched this team closely,
0:42
Speaker 1: he's a guy who's sort of been coming on and
0:45
Speaker 1: in the last year or so has really let his
0:47
Speaker 1: personality show. It's his personality that I'm particularly excited about
0:51
Speaker 1: having Jaguars fans to get to know a little better.
0:54
Speaker 1: Jaguars observers probably realized by now that I'm talking about
0:57
Speaker 1: Jaguars defensive end Dwan Smooth. Dwan will get right to it.
1:01
Speaker 1: I have been impressed the last two years, obviously with
1:04
Speaker 1: your play, your improvement, But tell me how you're doing
1:08
Speaker 1: right now. You're thirteen games into this thing. It's the NFL.
1:11
Speaker 1: How are you doing physically, because defensive lineman at the
1:14
Speaker 1: end of the season usually aren't off that injury report.
1:17
Speaker 1: It seems like you're doing okay. Uh yeah, I mean
1:20
Speaker 1: I'm fine. I'm a little you know, I got regular
1:23
Speaker 1: banged up little injuries and stuff like that here and there,
1:25
Speaker 1: but I'm still able to go. I think. I just
1:29
Speaker 1: that's just like a credit to the preparation I had
1:31
Speaker 1: off season. I didn't stop training like I literally took
1:34
Speaker 1: two weeks off and then I just trained all the
1:37
Speaker 1: way until we got into camp. So I mean that's
1:39
Speaker 1: just a testament to my body being able to take
1:41
Speaker 1: all these blows for the past thirteen weeks. I want
1:43
Speaker 1: to get into some of what you do in the
1:44
Speaker 1: off season a little later, but first, um, personally, this season, Uh,
1:50
Speaker 1: another productive season, another season where you're starting to get
1:54
Speaker 1: those sack numbers. What's been the reason for the improvement
1:59
Speaker 1: really sort of a dady improvement for you since maybe
2:02
Speaker 1: midway through your second season. What do you attribute maybe
2:05
Speaker 1: the consistency that you're showing the last couple of years.
2:07
Speaker 1: I would say definitely Number one is, uh the opportunity.
2:10
Speaker 1: My opportunities have went up a lot more. I've had
2:13
Speaker 1: more opportunity on the field, but also just my work ethic. Um,
2:16
Speaker 1: I feel like I changed. I kind of changed a
2:18
Speaker 1: lot of how I work in the off season and
2:20
Speaker 1: how I kind of prepare for the season. Um. The
2:24
Speaker 1: last like the last two years, like when my son
2:25
Speaker 1: was born, I kind of just just kind of shocked
2:28
Speaker 1: me a little bit, you know, kind of put a
2:29
Speaker 1: little a little fire in me. And when it came
2:32
Speaker 1: when it came to that offseason, I just trained as
2:34
Speaker 1: hard as I could. I picked up like different um styles,
2:37
Speaker 1: Like I started to do martial arts, and I started
2:39
Speaker 1: to do a lot of pilates and stuff, and it
2:41
Speaker 1: just started working for me, and I've just been sticking
2:43
Speaker 1: sticking with it. It's been working for me for the
2:44
Speaker 1: past couple of years. Take me through that a little bit,
2:47
Speaker 1: because you've done a lot. I think it started the
2:51
Speaker 1: off season before nineteen that you really started, I don't
2:56
Speaker 1: say experimenting, but trying to figure out how to do
2:59
Speaker 1: it right. UM. Kind of take me through your path,
3:02
Speaker 1: what you've done in the off seasons and sort of
3:05
Speaker 1: what your thing is now. What have you sort of
3:07
Speaker 1: settled on. UM, Well, I've tried UM. Yeah, I would
3:13
Speaker 1: say the first two years I tried. I even tried
3:15
Speaker 1: this crazy workout. I went out to like San Francisco,
3:18
Speaker 1: and I've worked out with a lot of like NBA
3:20
Speaker 1: guys and stuff like that, working on my conditioning, and
3:22
Speaker 1: I was like half of what I did. We ran
3:24
Speaker 1: up a whole bunch of like sand hills, ran a
3:27
Speaker 1: whole bunch of like, um crazy like sand mountains. It
3:30
Speaker 1: was crazy. It was kind of crazy like the thinking
3:32
Speaker 1: that I was doing, and uh, it really slimmed me
3:34
Speaker 1: out a lot. I got. I got a lot of
3:35
Speaker 1: conditioning stuff like that, but it didn't really work for me.
3:37
Speaker 1: This is coming into my second year, and then the
3:40
Speaker 1: third year I was I just thought was like, well,
3:42
Speaker 1: there has to be somebody here in Jacksonville that can
3:45
Speaker 1: train me, you know and like commit everything to me
3:48
Speaker 1: or whatever, commit everything and too too whatever I'm doing.
3:52
Speaker 1: And I was able to find that at Rise and
3:54
Speaker 1: Grind here here in Jacksonville and also a Combatisan limited.
3:57
Speaker 1: And you know, after after I worked there one time,
3:59
Speaker 1: I was dead tired, like the most tired I've ever been,
4:02
Speaker 1: Like this is for me, this is exactly what I need.
4:06
Speaker 1: It gave me that that um that shock that I needed,
4:09
Speaker 1: and it helped me, and it's been helping me for
4:11
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. And some of it was
4:13
Speaker 1: a matter of, uh, maybe getting a little too thin
4:17
Speaker 1: at some point or too light. Do you like where
4:20
Speaker 1: you are? It seems like you're where you ought to
4:22
Speaker 1: be physically. Do you feel that, Yeah, I definitely do.
4:24
Speaker 1: I want to. I want to stay within the two
4:26
Speaker 1: seventy five range. I know, my last my last couple
4:29
Speaker 1: of games, I've been like in the two seventy eight
4:31
Speaker 1: range and it's been it's been working for me great.
4:33
Speaker 1: I'm trying to stay within that range. Just try to
4:35
Speaker 1: get stronger and get a little slimmer, you know, just
4:37
Speaker 1: try to try to do whatever I can't, but stay
4:39
Speaker 1: within that way. I think fans who are listening to
4:42
Speaker 1: this might not grasp it's not an uncommon process for
4:47
Speaker 1: guys to go through what you went through. You get
4:49
Speaker 1: to the NFL. It's a different game than college, and
4:52
Speaker 1: you need different tools physically. Sometimes you just need to
4:56
Speaker 1: change who you are once you're in the NFL. But
4:59
Speaker 1: it's more common people think, and some guys sort of
5:02
Speaker 1: never find it. Huge process for you and you feel
5:06
Speaker 1: fortunate that you kind of found it. When some guys don't.
5:08
Speaker 1: Oh definitely. I mean I feel like I feel like
5:10
Speaker 1: I've been blessed. I feel like my persistence of just
5:14
Speaker 1: trying to find it and looking for it and keep
5:16
Speaker 1: searching for it has helped me and has has has
5:19
Speaker 1: benefited me, and in a bunch of ways. I mean,
5:22
Speaker 1: even even my family as well, them supporting me as well,
5:25
Speaker 1: not not ever looking at my performance on the field
5:28
Speaker 1: is like anything. They were just like, you got it,
5:30
Speaker 1: just keep it going, just keep trying to find find
5:32
Speaker 1: that thing that works for you. And I just kept
5:34
Speaker 1: I just kept searching for it. I mean, even with
5:36
Speaker 1: the jags and stuff, I didn't really know what the
5:37
Speaker 1: plan was when I was gonna play, you know, Rushau,
5:39
Speaker 1: I was gonna play big In or anything like that.
5:41
Speaker 1: Kept getting moving around, and you know, I just I
5:43
Speaker 1: just kind of just honed in on myself. It was like,
5:45
Speaker 1: all right, well, I'm just training as hard as I
5:47
Speaker 1: can put whatever I can on the field, and then
5:49
Speaker 1: that everything else will kind of just work out for itself.
5:51
Speaker 1: And that's what it's done. The first two seasons, no
5:55
Speaker 1: sacks Uh inactive for a little while that season. I
5:58
Speaker 1: remember talking to you during that when you got on
6:02
Speaker 1: the field, and it had been an emotional thing because
6:05
Speaker 1: you want to be playing. How whoa did you get
6:10
Speaker 1: in terms of confidence, in terms of just wondering human
6:14
Speaker 1: nature said, it must have been a strug. Oh yeah,
6:17
Speaker 1: it definitely was. I mean training that hard and working
6:21
Speaker 1: just as hard as everybody else on the field, like
6:24
Speaker 1: and not being there to even like show what you
6:26
Speaker 1: can do or performing anyway for eight full games like
6:29
Speaker 1: that sucked. But I definitely want to say, like like
6:34
Speaker 1: it helped me. You know that that deep dark place
6:38
Speaker 1: that I went into, it kind of gives me that
6:39
Speaker 1: fire when I go out there every Sunday now, And
6:42
Speaker 1: like looking back, like I got so much better going
6:44
Speaker 1: against I mean like the first team going against Cam
6:47
Speaker 1: Robinson every time, going against the first team every every
6:51
Speaker 1: single play, like a scout team and stuff like that,
6:53
Speaker 1: and I got like I was a was on every
6:55
Speaker 1: scout I was on every special teams, and it kind
6:58
Speaker 1: of just gave me that grit that I needed, you know.
6:59
Speaker 1: It's it gave me that that strive to just succeed.
7:03
Speaker 1: And when I was going against those guys, it made
7:04
Speaker 1: me so much better. So I feel like that that
7:07
Speaker 1: time helped me and definitely motor me and like what
7:10
Speaker 1: I am today? What would uh, four year veteran Dawn
7:15
Speaker 1: Smith tell the kid on draft deck? I would say,
7:21
Speaker 1: don't come in with expectations, just just kind of come
7:24
Speaker 1: in with just just work as hard as you can
7:27
Speaker 1: and everything's gonna everything's gonna work out. Don't come in
7:29
Speaker 1: with any expectations like I'm gonna be first team, the
7:32
Speaker 1: second team. You never know what what the organization hasn't
7:35
Speaker 1: planned for you. But as long as you work as
7:37
Speaker 1: hard as you can and you put put the best
7:39
Speaker 1: performance out there in the field, and that's that's all
7:42
Speaker 1: you can really do. Like you can control what you
7:44
Speaker 1: can control. You mentioned your son being born. Uh, how
7:47
Speaker 1: does that change you? Um? I feel like it's definitely
7:50
Speaker 1: made me grow up. And like I already know a
7:54
Speaker 1: lot of people say this, like whenever you have a kid,
7:56
Speaker 1: like kind of like life kind of stops, you know,
7:58
Speaker 1: you kind of just look at it like that that's
8:00
Speaker 1: the center of the universe and you have to do
8:02
Speaker 1: like whatever you have to do to support them. And
8:05
Speaker 1: that's kind of the position I was in, you know.
8:06
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of that's still the position i'man
8:08
Speaker 1: in the mindset I mean, I mean, I'm just trying
8:10
Speaker 1: to do whatever I can to show him like the
8:13
Speaker 1: right way, you know. And I feel like I've grown
8:16
Speaker 1: up so much. I've I've matured so much, and I
8:19
Speaker 1: just I love being a dad. I love I love
8:21
Speaker 1: having a family, love you know, being a husband. So
8:23
Speaker 1: it's great. And now that turns into motivation for football, right, Yeah,
8:29
Speaker 1: it definitely does. Just just knowing that I'll be able
8:32
Speaker 1: to support my family for generations and like the performances
8:35
Speaker 1: that I have been putting putting on, not not putting
8:38
Speaker 1: a number on or anything like that, but just knowing
8:40
Speaker 1: that whatever I do end up getting in the off season,
8:42
Speaker 1: it will be enough to support my fair you know,
8:45
Speaker 1: tell me about your mind, cause my cleatsonitie and it
8:47
Speaker 1: was interesting. I know that meant a lot to you. Yeah,
8:50
Speaker 1: it mean it meant a lot to me. I was
8:51
Speaker 1: just I was so happy to finally get the kids,
8:54
Speaker 1: like to get the kids in like UH into it.
8:57
Speaker 1: You know, Jim Jim's UH is Jacksonville Art and Music School.
9:02
Speaker 1: We had UM. We had them bring a blank canvas
9:06
Speaker 1: of the cleats and all the kids they all did
9:08
Speaker 1: their own individual designs. UM. I first heard about them
9:11
Speaker 1: was from my Duela because my wife had um we
9:14
Speaker 1: we both had a natural birth or whatever, so she
9:17
Speaker 1: had no medicine, no nothing. Our dula. She introduced it.
9:19
Speaker 1: She introduced it to the school and um we went
9:22
Speaker 1: there and like their play night and stuff like that,
9:24
Speaker 1: and we saw how interacted the kids were, how creative
9:27
Speaker 1: they were, how outgoing they were. It's just like they
9:29
Speaker 1: were having a great time. So I just thought that
9:31
Speaker 1: there was a great opportunity for like someone to really
9:34
Speaker 1: you know, bring awareness to that. And that's what I
9:37
Speaker 1: tried to do this this past year was you know,
9:39
Speaker 1: allowing them to put their autum display and then they
9:42
Speaker 1: painted the shoes, so every every uh, every kid that
9:47
Speaker 1: had a chance to to color the cleats and stuff
9:50
Speaker 1: like that had a little That's something you'll stay involved with.
9:55
Speaker 1: It sounds like, oh yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm I'm
9:57
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to they're doing like the workshop where
10:00
Speaker 1: they're like building computers and stuff, and I'm like a
10:02
Speaker 1: big techie, so I'm looking forward to actually like getting
10:06
Speaker 1: my hand hands on that and teaching the kids as
10:09
Speaker 1: well and trying to prep for this. I kind of
10:11
Speaker 1: heard that as well. City's really into technology now. Everybody
10:15
Speaker 1: these days is sort of into technology. How are you
10:18
Speaker 1: into technology? I built what three computers now in my
10:23
Speaker 1: in my office. Also, UM built phones as well. Okay,
10:27
Speaker 1: I'll show that as well, and and also with my
10:30
Speaker 1: YouTube as well too. UM and they say build phones.
10:34
Speaker 1: Take me through that. What is the Are you putting
10:37
Speaker 1: plastic onto parts or what is that? No, it's like
10:40
Speaker 1: it's like basically you get you get your CPU, you
10:43
Speaker 1: get your GPU, you get your your CPU, cooler, fans,
10:48
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and you just put it within Like
10:50
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of like still in plastic. It's
10:52
Speaker 1: like it's still in plastic kind of like case. You
10:54
Speaker 1: just you have to install it all you have a
10:56
Speaker 1: big motherboard and you have to plug it on in.
10:58
Speaker 1: It's kind of like kind of like a puzzle piece.
11:01
Speaker 1: And then after the hobby or do you use the phone?
11:04
Speaker 1: Oh no, it's a hobby. It's definitely a hobby. It's
11:07
Speaker 1: something that you know, I've learned to do along the way,
11:09
Speaker 1: and like now like I'm just I'm just creating just
11:12
Speaker 1: different things now with it. And I wish I could
11:14
Speaker 1: show you some pictures of some videos on it. But
11:17
Speaker 1: it's it's really cool and you know, it's exciting. And
11:19
Speaker 1: I'm assuming these computers you built aren't small mm hmm.
11:23
Speaker 1: Are they gaming computers or what's the I have a
11:28
Speaker 1: gaming computer and I have an editing editing computer as well. Okay,
11:32
Speaker 1: editing for your videos that you do and everything. So okay,
11:34
Speaker 1: and find a question on these lines. Take me through
11:38
Speaker 1: the video concept. When you say your videos, tell them
11:42
Speaker 1: what that means and what you're doing with that on
11:46
Speaker 1: my YouTube channel okay, my smooth Smooth TV. The the
11:49
Speaker 1: YouTube channel is a vlog style channel. I basically just
11:53
Speaker 1: flowed my life as as a professional athlete. I kind
11:56
Speaker 1: of I kind of gave it a break this last
11:58
Speaker 1: couple of months or whatever, but I'm to get back
12:00
Speaker 1: to it in the off season. But I kind of
12:02
Speaker 1: just show what it's like, you know, living living as me.
12:05
Speaker 1: It's the one smooth. I mean, it's it's funny, it's entertaining.
12:09
Speaker 1: You know, it's motivational as well. So I definitely would
12:12
Speaker 1: say check it out, give me a subscribe, you know,
12:15
Speaker 1: check it out. So probably in the off season they'll
12:17
Speaker 1: be able to start catching back with you. Yeah, definitely.
12:21
Speaker 1: On on a not so pleasant topic, one and twelve
12:24
Speaker 1: twelve straight losses. How are you dealing with that? How
12:27
Speaker 1: does the player deal with that? Uh, you just had
12:30
Speaker 1: to be internally motivated or how does that work? What's
12:33
Speaker 1: your mindset on that front? It's kind of yes, it's
12:36
Speaker 1: kind of like internally motivated. We know that, like as
12:38
Speaker 1: a team, we have to kind of come together and
12:41
Speaker 1: we've we've we've got a lot closer at the team.
12:43
Speaker 1: I feel like because all the tough times we've been
12:45
Speaker 1: going through, we've been having to pick each other up
12:47
Speaker 1: and kind of get to know each other a lot more.
12:49
Speaker 1: So I would say it's been tough. But you know,
12:52
Speaker 1: the individual motivation, Like as long as we're out there
12:55
Speaker 1: performing individually the best we can, it's going to help
12:58
Speaker 1: the team like collective. So now that's where that's what
13:01
Speaker 1: we're all trying to do within our within our scheme. Plus,
13:05
Speaker 1: you gotta be a pro, right he didn't that part
13:06
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, you always gotta be a pro. I
13:08
Speaker 1: mean we're professional athletes. You gotta be a pro. You
13:10
Speaker 1: gotta come in every day, you know, work as hard
13:13
Speaker 1: as you can. You gotta be on time every day.
13:14
Speaker 1: So that's a part of it as well. And it
13:18
Speaker 1: sounds like they were virtual so we don't get a
13:21
Speaker 1: chance to talk to you guys in the locker room
13:23
Speaker 1: and the way we once did. But it sounds like
13:27
Speaker 1: overall the team is thinking like you're thinking, meaning you know,
13:32
Speaker 1: I wanted twolve you see some guys quitting, but you
13:34
Speaker 1: don't see that and you don't sense it talking to
13:36
Speaker 1: you guys. No, no, I mean you you don't quit,
13:39
Speaker 1: like either way, like if you're if you're out there
13:40
Speaker 1: and you're playing football, like there's no quit if you
13:42
Speaker 1: quit either either get pancakes, either get hurt like something
13:47
Speaker 1: like that. You can't quit, you know. It's I mean,
13:49
Speaker 1: it might look like it on TV. It's like, oh,
13:51
Speaker 1: this guy's quitting like that, this team's quitting. But we're
13:53
Speaker 1: trying as hard as we can. I mean, sometimes the
13:55
Speaker 1: game just kind of gets out of the hand and
13:57
Speaker 1: like football is like all momentum games, so the momentum
14:00
Speaker 1: goes like that's that's what it is, you know, But
14:03
Speaker 1: we're all we're out there plan as hard as we can,
14:05
Speaker 1: doing what we can. We got a whole lot of
14:07
Speaker 1: guys that you wouldn't even think would even be playing
14:09
Speaker 1: right now, and they're they're playing great, has been playing great,
14:12
Speaker 1: so wait, we're trying. People loved hearing you last week
14:17
Speaker 1: talk about Jacksonville. I know you. I do like to
14:19
Speaker 1: stay with the Jaguars. Who knows new general manager? Everybody
14:23
Speaker 1: knows that terrain. What is it about Jacksonville that has
14:28
Speaker 1: sort of dazzled you where you feel that way about it?
14:31
Speaker 1: I mean, come me, coming from Columbus, Ohio, I don't
14:34
Speaker 1: like big cities. I don't like a lot of population
14:37
Speaker 1: and people all on your face and stuff. I like
14:39
Speaker 1: it to kind of be mellow, you know. It's it's
14:41
Speaker 1: real relaxing and calm here. And it's like also like
14:44
Speaker 1: a great place to live, like me, And I'm gonna
14:47
Speaker 1: go back to me being from the Midwest. I don't
14:49
Speaker 1: like the colde either. It's great weather here, like it's
14:53
Speaker 1: it's a it's a whole lot of opportunities as well
14:55
Speaker 1: when it comes to real estate here too. I mean
14:57
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville has been built up like like in the
15:02
Speaker 1: last like ten ten some years. So I mean I'm
15:04
Speaker 1: to be trying to do that as well, you know,
15:06
Speaker 1: with with with the contract that I do end up getting.
15:08
Speaker 1: So I mean it's a lot of opportunity here. It's
15:11
Speaker 1: my my family loves it. The weathers here. I mean,
15:13
Speaker 1: I don't see a reason to leave. This season hasn't
15:16
Speaker 1: gotten you down, has it? No, you're doing for me.
15:20
Speaker 1: For me personally, I mean it's it's been it's been
15:22
Speaker 1: getting me down. Like as a team effort. Yes, it
15:25
Speaker 1: sucked that we lost, but I mean we've been losing,
15:27
Speaker 1: but like individually, like I've I've been happy. You know, Hey,
15:32
Speaker 1: you want the last thing we do on this is
15:33
Speaker 1: what we call the ozone five five. It's five quick questions.
15:40
Speaker 1: We have some fun with it, short or as long
15:42
Speaker 1: as you want. Want what's your last binge? Wash? My
15:46
Speaker 1: last binge wash? Snowfall? Yeah, it's a it's it's a
15:51
Speaker 1: little it's a mature series. I'll say that. Yeah, that's
15:55
Speaker 1: really the kids go to bad I get it. Last
15:59
Speaker 1: song in your iPhone or your car? Um, I would
16:04
Speaker 1: say the last album I listened to was the last
16:06
Speaker 1: latest NBA Young Boy. I think it was like Casey talked. Okay, yeah,
16:13
Speaker 1: I'll take your word for it. One um, what person
16:17
Speaker 1: in your life is most responsible for you being here
16:20
Speaker 1: in the NFL UM I would say my father. He
16:24
Speaker 1: he pushed me ever since I was eight years old,
16:27
Speaker 1: even when I wanted to quit football, he didn't let me.
16:31
Speaker 1: I've been a three sport athletes since all way up
16:33
Speaker 1: until college, so I mean I definitely give a lot
16:35
Speaker 1: of that credit to him. He's been my biggest support
16:37
Speaker 1: system and makes every game still still as a pro.
16:40
Speaker 1: So I'm happy that my dad did that. Funny, if
16:43
Speaker 1: football hadn't been your best sport, what was your best sport? Um? Track?
16:49
Speaker 1: It was track. I went to the nationals in discus
16:54
Speaker 1: and the hurdles as well, so that a combination. You
16:58
Speaker 1: don't see that off, Yeah, you don't see it often,
17:00
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Shot yeah, usually disk and shot
17:04
Speaker 1: shot click. Kind of got away from me because I
17:06
Speaker 1: was a little, okay, smaller in high school. Okay, I
17:09
Speaker 1: got this. This was all about technique. So I mean
17:11
Speaker 1: I had that downpack hundred ten hurdles or three thirties
17:16
Speaker 1: had it was the four inns of hurdles AU nationals,
17:19
Speaker 1: and then in high school I ran I had I
17:21
Speaker 1: wouldn't make the regionals. You had the regionals and once
17:23
Speaker 1: in hurdles because three thirty I mean the four hundreds
17:26
Speaker 1: of serious staminas and serious athleticism, and you must have
17:29
Speaker 1: been a lot lighter. Oh yeah, I was. That was
17:32
Speaker 1: a lot like I was like, okay, I got you. Okay,
17:37
Speaker 1: you love Jacksonville so much. Tell me your favorite go
17:40
Speaker 1: to restaurant or say oh yeah, I know, well you
17:43
Speaker 1: know we got you do want to smooth. I can't
17:47
Speaker 1: thank you enough for doing this. I know Wednesdays are
17:49
Speaker 1: a busy time and you're giving your time to this.
17:51
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and you luck the rest of
17:53
Speaker 1: the season and get luck specifically for you in the
17:55
Speaker 1: off season. Well, thank you and thank you for having me.
17:58
Speaker 1: I say, every week Wednesday a tough to these guys.
18:01
Speaker 1: They're willing to give us ten or fifteen minutes and
18:03
Speaker 1: give us some thought into it, which makes this much
18:07
Speaker 1: more interesting than if they don't. So thanks to get
18:10
Speaker 1: into one about that. And Dave, he's a fascinating guy.
18:14
Speaker 1: As I said at the top, because as I mentioned
18:17
Speaker 1: to him and we were talking, there were some opportunities.
18:21
Speaker 1: I don't want to say give up, because most players
18:23
Speaker 1: don't give up, but when you go through what he
18:25
Speaker 1: went the first couple of years, and there's opportunities to
18:30
Speaker 1: lose your way as a player, and he really had
18:33
Speaker 1: to struggle through some. He got way too light he
18:36
Speaker 1: touched on that wasn't on the field after eight games
18:40
Speaker 1: of his second year. I assumed that he wasn't gonna
18:44
Speaker 1: be here in his third year because usually the storyline goes,
18:48
Speaker 1: you're inactive for a few games that year. By your
18:51
Speaker 1: third year, the GM doesn't have to keep you because
18:54
Speaker 1: there's no more draft. You have to keep this guy
18:57
Speaker 1: a remarkable turnaround story to me. Yeah, kind of interesting
19:00
Speaker 1: how he just kind of refocused on on his career
19:04
Speaker 1: a little bit and how to prepare for an NFL season.
19:08
Speaker 1: He's been uh in this year. I mean, like I
19:10
Speaker 1: think you kind of when you introduced it. For him
19:13
Speaker 1: not to appear really on the injury report at all
19:15
Speaker 1: this season, especially playing playing defensive line, and how much
19:19
Speaker 1: more he's playing now is it is a is a
19:22
Speaker 1: big credit to him. And yeah, we uh trying to
19:26
Speaker 1: think back probably last offseason, we shot, uh, we do
19:30
Speaker 1: a cooking segment for one of our sponsors, and we
19:33
Speaker 1: shot it with the one and he was great and
19:35
Speaker 1: he brought his own camera carew which was which was
19:37
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. So there's two camera crews there because
19:40
Speaker 1: he for his video stuff for his video blog that
19:43
Speaker 1: he does. UM, but it was cool. He was super friendly,
19:47
Speaker 1: really into it. Um you know, I uh, you know,
19:50
Speaker 1: I always like the one. He's just the U. He
19:53
Speaker 1: always he has a good personality. He's also a big
19:55
Speaker 1: question to ask her about, like what what we do?
19:58
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that and it's interesting. He he's a
20:00
Speaker 1: guy who clearly if you listen to him, if you've
20:02
Speaker 1: seen him. A lot of the fans who listen to
20:05
Speaker 1: this have seen our interviews on Jaguars dot Com. They
20:09
Speaker 1: followed closely, So if you've seen him, you know how
20:13
Speaker 1: personable he is. He's one of these guys and it's
20:16
Speaker 1: not two of every player that you're sure whatever he
20:20
Speaker 1: does after football, he's going to figure out a way
20:22
Speaker 1: to be a success. He's got a future in the
20:25
Speaker 1: media or electronics or something like communication because he clearly
20:31
Speaker 1: has an active mind. I mean, Dave, he's building phones.
20:35
Speaker 1: I'm fortunate if I can get mine on, so he's
20:39
Speaker 1: he's far ahead and that now I know when I
20:41
Speaker 1: can't get my phone working right, let's go down st
20:45
Speaker 1: He'll build me one. You're still trying to figure out
20:47
Speaker 1: how to how to whether you put your thumb with
20:48
Speaker 1: the coat or face, and it doesn't always want unlock
20:51
Speaker 1: the phone doesn't always be honest with you. I mean,
20:53
Speaker 1: it's it's a bad scene at times, but it's it's
20:56
Speaker 1: a he Uh. Building computers is one thing, building phones another.
21:01
Speaker 1: I've been fascinated in the last couple of weeks what
21:03
Speaker 1: kind of close with this, how much he wants to
21:07
Speaker 1: be in Jacksonville, And I frankly don't know. There's no
21:10
Speaker 1: GM right now, so you don't know how that's gonna
21:12
Speaker 1: play out in terms of how the general manager feels
21:16
Speaker 1: about Smoot, how Smooth feels about what his role is
21:19
Speaker 1: going to be, because you don't know what the new
21:20
Speaker 1: general manager will think a player like Dwan's role will be.
21:25
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's a fifteen sack of year guy,
21:28
Speaker 1: but I don't know that he's a two sack of
21:31
Speaker 1: year guy. He he's shown that he gets opportunities that
21:35
Speaker 1: he will continue to rush the pastor he's going to
21:39
Speaker 1: get his numbers. You need guys on your team and
21:43
Speaker 1: on your defensive line. It's it's an interesting position, is
21:45
Speaker 1: what I'm getting. At offensive line, you've got five starters,
21:49
Speaker 1: and if you're not one of those five starters, you
21:51
Speaker 1: are you know, low, low paid defensive line, you've got
21:56
Speaker 1: guys who make intermediate salaries, and I think that's probably
21:59
Speaker 1: what Dwan is. I don't think he's gonna be a
22:00
Speaker 1: break the bank guy because the sack numbers aren't there.
22:03
Speaker 1: But you need to pay a few defensive linemen, non
22:08
Speaker 1: premier elite money, but you need to have depth there.
22:11
Speaker 1: So he's gonna have a role like that somewhere in
22:15
Speaker 1: the NFL this year or next year. And it's not
22:18
Speaker 1: out of their own possibility to be with the Jaguars.
22:19
Speaker 1: He certainly wants to stay here. Uh money talks when
22:24
Speaker 1: guys are deciding where they want to stay. I'll admit,
22:27
Speaker 1: after doing the podcast every after getting to know him
22:29
Speaker 1: a little bit the last few weeks, I'm hoping that
22:31
Speaker 1: it works out that he stays. He's the kind of
22:34
Speaker 1: guy who wants to be here that you want on
22:38
Speaker 1: an NFL team, in a in an NFL city. That's right,
22:41
Speaker 1: you know. That's one thing we're kind of talking about,
22:43
Speaker 1: like what motivates people to want to live where they
22:46
Speaker 1: where they live. I mean when he said, uh talked
22:49
Speaker 1: about after having your first kid, where it's life changing,
22:51
Speaker 1: I mean, thank you're a dad, Yeah, yeah, I mean
22:54
Speaker 1: your kids much older than my kids. But yeah, it's
22:56
Speaker 1: definitely life changing, like your priority suddenly shift the different things,
23:00
Speaker 1: so you know, maybe that that plays into it. But yeah,
23:03
Speaker 1: I would like to see him around here too. I mean,
23:05
Speaker 1: he's a good player, good guy, and you know you
23:07
Speaker 1: never can have too many good guys around around where
23:10
Speaker 1: you work. Well, I think people who listen to this
23:12
Speaker 1: day I've realized or maybe know a little bit more
23:15
Speaker 1: about what makes Dwan Smooth a good guy. So in closing,
23:19
Speaker 1: I want to thank Joe Fortunado for making me sound
23:21
Speaker 1: better than I am, and thank Dave for holding this
23:24
Speaker 1: thing together each week. Particularly thank Dwan Snood and all
23:26
Speaker 1: players who joined us during the week. It's not as
23:29
Speaker 1: easy as it sounds to do that during the week
23:31
Speaker 1: during the season. And I thank Dwan for, just like
23:34
Speaker 1: most of the players this year, given us a lot
23:37
Speaker 1: of times, given us a lot of thought. Because of that,
23:40
Speaker 1: doos own podcast didn't suck. We'll try again next week.