CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The injury to linebacker Mack Wilson forced the Browns’ hand to add another veteran to a young linebacker corps.
Enter Malcolm Smith to fill the hole left by Wilson, who suffered a hyperextended knee and will be out an undetermined amount of time.
In a short amount of time since being signed on Aug. 23rd, Smith has stepped in and quickly established himself as a player to count on.
“I wouldn’t say it’s pressure,” Smith said Saturday during a Zoom video conference with reporters. “It’s a cool opportunity to have especially with a new coaching staff here and some of the people I’m familiar with and obviously some of the work that the coaches have done and some of the players have done throughout the league, [I] have a lot of respect for a lot of the people here.”
His goal is to bring his experience, and own flavor, to Joe Woods’ defense.
“Just try and add my sauce, bring what I can to the mix,” Smith said. “That’s how you get things better., You blend energies, try and get everybody moving in the same direction.”
Smith and B.J. Goodson are surrounded by youngsters in their position group including rookie and third-round pick Jacob Phillips, last year’s third-round pick Sione Takitaki, Tae Davis, Willie Harvey and rookie Solomon Ajayi.
Smith has played in 104 regular season games where he has racked up 295 career tackles, 10 forced fumbles, six sacks, four interceptions and three fumble recoveries.
Sharing his knowledge and experience with the younger players is one of his core beliefs as a veteran.
“It’s not fair for me to keep some of the knowledge that I have,” Smith said. “You gotta share what you know for us to be good, for us to compete, for us to operate at our best as a unit. You don’t want to miss any opportunities to share what you know and I’m definitely not that type of guy. I don’t think there’s any types of guys like that on this team that I’ve seen.”
The Browns have been trying to turn the corner for what feels like eternity, and they appear to be close. Cleveland is Smith’s sixth team but he knows what it takes to win in the NFL having won a Super Bowl and been the MVP of the game with Seattle and played for the 49ers and Cowboys.
“One is definitely the passion it takes every day to come to work and understanding that you’re competing on multiple fronts,” Smith said. “You’re competing to stay healthy; you’re competing to stay strong throughout the year; you’re competing to pay attention to the small details, so everything counts. That was something that we always harped on.
“All the good teams I’ve been on and the good organizations, it’s always been about everything you put in counting towards something. There’s no steps that go ignored and as soon as you do you leave an opportunity for someone else to beat you.”
Regardless of how the rest of Smith’s career plays out, he’ll always be known as a Super Bowl champion and MVP after totaling 10 tackles, one fumble recovery and an interception for a touchdown during Seattle’s 43-8 victory in Super Bowl XLVIII.
“It’s cool to see, I mean obviously there’s a ton of great teammates that go into something like that,” Smith said. “Anytime I hear that it just attaches the moments that we shared together, that group, all the things we did as a unit, for me to have some individual success and the guys along the way that helped us get to that point.
“It’s cool to have something like that attached to my name, and it’s special, but I’d say overall it’s just a testament to the group we had, the work that we put in and even myself individually.”