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From the Dallas Cowboys’ trash heap to an NFL record – “The man once discarded by the Dallas Cowboys made the entire NFL bow down!”

Posted on July 5, 2025 - 5:27 am by

   

Sometimes, all a player needs is a second chance, but finding a team to give you one is easier said than done, depending on the circumstances.

Al Davis, for example, famously loved a reclamation project in his time owning the Las Vegas Raiders, turning the likes of Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon into Super Bowl quarterbacks long after their effectiveness was considered to have subsided.

Meanwhile, coaches such as Bill Belichick have long been able to set themselves up for glory by turning unwanted players from other franchises such as Corey Dillon and Mike Vrabel into key contributors.

Today, as part of NFL Analysis’ look at holders of single-game receiving records, we’re going to be taking a look at one of the biggest redemption arcs of all time — a man who went from borderline out of the league in his early days on a storied franchise, to becoming possibly the greatest Jacksonville Jaguar of all time.

This is the story of Jimmy Smith.

Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images

Who is Jimmy Smith?

Jimmy Smith arrived out of small-school Jackson State University in 1992 as a much-heralded pick of the Dallas Cowboys, who took him near the top of the second round, with the 36th overall pick.

This being the heydays of Jimmy Johnson’s great Dallas Super Bowl sides, the team was already spoilt for choice at wide receiver — smack bang in the middle of the ‘Triplets’ era with quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and top wideout Michael Irvin, the team also had the popular Alvin Harper and Kelvin Martin as strong backups.

This was also in an era where most NFL teams did not run multiple receiver sets, so Smith’s position as fourth on the depth chart largely saw him relegated to special teams duties on the punt and kick return teams. Despite that, he was able to earn a Super Bowl ring as a rookie, being part of the team that defeated the Buffalo Bills.

1993 looked stronger, as Martin had departed, but severe medical problems, reputed to have been misdiagnosed by Cowboys staffers, led to him missing the entire season on the non-football injury list, before he was cut in the 1994 offseason having declined a pay cut. Following a short spell with the Philadelphia Eagles, Smith found himself on the football scrapheap, with no receiving statistics to speak of.

Enter Jacksonville. Expanding into the league along with the Carolina Panthers, the Jaguars took a flyer on the lost receiver, and ended up with a bargain. Eleven years with the Jaguars saw 862 catches for over 12000 yards, and 67 touchdowns. Smith became a massive part of the reason they were able to be one of the most successful NFL expansion franchises, making the playoffs as early as 1996 and coming within a game of the Super Bowl on two occasions.

It was against a Super Bowl winner, however, where he’d have his finest hour.

Jimmy Smith’s record-setting day came against a record-setting defense

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Jimmy Smith’s record setting day on September 10th, 2000 is not that it happened, but who it was against. The Jaguars, in the middle of what would become a relatively poor 7-9 season, traveled to face the Baltimore Ravens, who, while they didn’t know it yet, were on the verge of making history.

This Ravens team was the standard by which all modern defenses would later be held to — a stingy, hard hitting defense with attitude and incredible leadership. This defense spawned the legend of Ray Lewis, and is the biggest reason why a quarterback as ostensibly poor as Trent Dilfer can call himself a Super Bowl champion.

Somehow, though, none of that mattered on this day, as the Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith connection that served the Jaguars so well for so many years sparked into life again, with Smith recording a ridiculous statline of fifteen catches for almost 300 yards and three touchdowns. He was actually targeted a staggering 21 times during the course of the game, suggesting even bigger numbers might have been possible.

Astonishingly, that didn’t win the Jaguars the game. Somehow, in a season where the Ravens could barely ever rely on their offense for a win, this was a game where they could, with Tony Banks leading a late drive and hitting Shannon Sharpe for a game-winning touchdown with 41 seconds left on the clock.

Much like for the rest of his career, personal success for Smith did not equate to team success for Jacksonville.

The final years of Jimmy Smith’s career

Indeed, following the departure of partner in crime Keenan McCardell, Smith would largely find himself plowing a lone furrow with the Jaguars, doing his best to turn water into wine throughout most of the 2000s.

Somewhat dropping out of people’s memory as the Jaguars declined post-Tom Coughlin, Smith was last named an All-Pro in 2001, with his final of five Pro Bowl berths coming in the same year. That said, there was basically no real drop off in his numbers, bar a suspension plagued 2003 season, as he consistently registered over 1000 yards per season, usually along with six to eight touchdowns.

He surprisingly and somewhat abruptly retired from the league at the age of 37 in 2006, landing seventh on the all time receptions list and eleventh on the all time receiving yardage list. He remains a dual record holder with the Jaguars, holding both the receptions and receiving touchdowns marks for season and career by some distance.

In a more glamorous home with more playoff visibility, Smith would probably be talked about as a Hall of Famer, but his somewhat opaque career may mean that, barring a campaign by the team of a member of the media, that never happens.

Whether it does or not, however, he’ll still be remembered as one of the best reclamation projects the NFL has ever seen, and certainly one of the few to outfox the vaunted Baltimore defense of the 2000s.