Dawuane Smoot And His Formula To Becoming a Better Defensive End

Jacksonville Jaguars Dawuane Smoot found a formula before the 2019 season that included his son and martial arts, to have his best year yet. Now he's looking to grow that for the 2020 season.

When Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Dawuane Smoot entered the league four years ago, he thought he’d continue his dominant play from Illinois. He tallied 16.5 sacks during his time in college and assumed it would translate directly to the NFL.

“I definitely thought that I was going to be in a different place of course. I mean everybody coming in after college just thinks they’re just going to keep rolling and getting 8.0, 9.0., 10.0 sacks and go crazy, be like a Josh Allen.”

That wasn’t the case for Smoot, who instead fought through his first two years without a sack and limited playing time.

“The first two years kind of just put me in a place of uncertainty,” Smoot explained to reporters on Tuesday.

“The stat sheet is not showing exactly what I’m doing. I know that whenever I got out there, I’ll get a tackle for loss here and there, just making plans here and there, but I never really had that true sack until last year.”

He spoke before the 2019 season of a retooled offseason, one that included martial arts and additional individual work. Then during last season, his third in the league and with the Jags, Smoot exploded for six sacks (with 16 tackles and one fumble recovery) and a push into the permanent rotation with Josh Allen, Yannick Ngakoue and Calais Campbell.

“I would definitely say my strength and being able to shed blocks, that got way better, tremendously better. I’ll give all that credit to Rise and Grind [Gym in Jacksonville] because I’ve been working a bunch on my strength there and lifting and doing whatever I can to be able to stop the run so that’s my goal.”

That work is continuing this offseason, as Smoot works on goals that he says included increasing his snap production (it was 38% last season) and improve the stat sheet that does form a foundation for so many evaluations.

Is 38% of snaps enough??? 🤔 https://t.co/t1LTyRPPsv

— Dawuane Smoot (@Bigsmoot_94) July 29, 2020

“I’ve definitely just elevated that. I work with a martial arts specialist three or four times a week. Also, my guy at Rise and Grind, Jason. I have a couple of other guys working with me too, so we’ve just been working hard this whole offseason.

“[We’ve] been doing whatever we can, been working since like January until the season, been working real hard. So, I’m just trying to continue it and just trying to take a new step up every single year so that’s my goal.”

More so than just the additional work though, Smoot found the spark that had been needed to light his fire. His son was born last April and with the birth of little Ahmir, the 6-foot-3, 264-pound defensive end had something for which to play.

“I feel like my motivation really came, it didn’t necessarily come from the team, it came from my family. Once I had my kid and everything like that, I feel like I had somebody who was leaning on me, somebody was depending on me. I had no other choice but to go get it last year."

Between his son, the martial arts, and the additional work, Smoot found a formula for a new level of play. He saw it pay off in real-time and on the stat sheet. And now, he’s looking to increase it ten-fold in 2020 for himself and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

.@Bigsmoot_94 about to be on a whole new level. pic.twitter.com/mGYBga1NQP

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) April 2, 2020

“I’m definitely comfortable I would say within my role like leadership wise and being able to help out all the guys but I’m definitely not comfortable with any of my stats or like what I’m able to do on the field. I’m trying to get more. I’m trying to go for more. I’m trying to get double digits and do whatever I can for the team and put some W’s on the board. That’s my goal at the end of the day.”