LSU defensive tackle Maason Smith says he's 'grown a lot' from knee injury to NFL combine

INDIANAPOLIS — The reality is that Maason Smith only aged around 540 days between Sept. 4, 2022, and this week.

For the LSU defensive tackle, though, literal time takes a back seat to how he feels in the span. On one extreme is the low point of his football career, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the first game of his sophomore season in college.

On the other was the gateway to achieving a lifelong dream at the NFL combine, where Smith had already sat down with several teams, including the Browns.

"I think I grew up in a sense a lot more," Smith said Wednesday of those 540-some days. "Just being I was 19 years old at the time and just having to go through that tedious process of rehabilitation, I feel like I've grown a lot. And I'm 21 now, but I feel like I'm almost a 23-year-old in my mind."

Smith came out of high school in Houma, La., as the No. 1-ranked football player in the state. He went to play for the home-state power, where he immediately was seen as the next great LSU defensive lineman.

That first season with the Tigers, Smith looked the part, earning Freshmen All-America honors after recording four sacks and five tackles for loss in nine games. That was supposed to be the springboard into a sophomore season in which full All-America honors followed.

"It was an experience," Smith said. "And I feel like, like I said earlier, character, I feel like it tested, it went straight to my character. A lot of guys wouldn't be able to do that, but somebody in my shoes, I had to fill that role with injury that we had my freshman year. I had to fill that role, and I was going to do everything to make it happen."

Until he couldn't.

Then, on the eighth defensive play of LSU's 2022 season against Florida State in New Orleans, Smith's teammate Major Burns made a tackle for loss on a second-and-7 play and Smith leaped in the air nearby to celebrate. When he landed, though, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee to end his season.

Smith recovered to play last season for the Tigers, although the lost time and the knee injury clearly seemed to impact him a bit. Still, he played well enough to feel confident making the jump from the SEC to the NFL.

"I feel like it was about the same towards the beginning of the season," Smith said of his last collegiate season. "I never really, I didn't necessarily feel that I was different, but it was more of a confidence thing I feel for me. And getting towards the end of the season I definitely felt like a spark and I elevated my game. I felt like I was becoming a better version of myself and becoming back to getting to me."

The next step has arrived for Smith this week in Indianapolis. Thursday's defensive linemen workouts at the combine will provide him an opportunity to showcase the athleticism that made him one of the nation's top defensive linemen going into his second year at LSU.

The first couple of days Smith was in Indianapolis, Smith had a chance to sit down with interviews — some formal, some not — with several teams. The Browns, who won't pick until No. 54 overall but do need defensive tackle help, were among those to talk to him.

That gave Smith a chance to speak with Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, whose scheme relies on just the kind of aggressive yet versatile defensive linemen the former Tiger said he is at his core.

"He really just was telling me that they're very much an attack defense, and I liked that," Smith said. "I actually think my meeting were really good with them. I was able to draw some things on the board and I think they really liked me and what I bring to the game."

A game that, a little more than 540 days ago, there was a chance Smith never could play again.

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Maason Smith, recovered from knee injury, prepping for NFL Draft