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very successful and having a lot of great people around me. I couldn't have done it without you guys," Smith said in a video he posted on Twitter. "Really just looking forward to the future, with my decision and moving forward, I'm deciding to head to the NFL Draft. "It's really just perseverance from here. With the adversity I'm going through right now dealing with the knee injury, I have the same vision. Jaylon Smith Turns Pro After Injury Notre Dame junior linebacker Jaylon Smith carried what was arguably the easiest decision to leave school for the NFL Draft of any underclassman heading into the Fiesta Bowl with Ohio State Jan. 1. The knee injury he suffered in the 44-28 loss, however, made the outlook a bit murky. Smith suffered what head coach Brian Kelly called a "significant" knee injury. According to multiple reports, he suffered tears in multiple knee ligaments and underwent surgery Jan. 7. DraftCountdown.com analyst Scott Wright said there was no simple answer for Smith's decision to leave or stay at Notre Dame. "I think at the absolute minimum he needs to sit down and I don't know if reevaluate is the right word, but certainly talk to everyone again," Wright said prior to Smith turning pro. "Look at the situation with the new circumstances factored in. I still think Jaylon Smith is a first-round pick. He's a freakish talent that is to a degree of the Todd Gurley situation." Gurley, then a running back at Georgia, suffered a torn ACL in mid-November 2014, but the following spring he still was selected in the top 10 of the NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams. "What complicates it a little more with Jaylon is exactly how serious is it? You see reports that it's multiple ligaments and maybe nerve damage," Wright said. "Every team's set of doctors could look at it differently. I don't know if there's going to be a consensus when it comes to his medical evaluation. Some doctors are more conservative. Some team doctors might say it's not a problem at all and to take him regardless. "The other thing that complicates it is how late in the year it happened. When Todd Gurley got hurt … he had a two-month jump on Jaylon Smith in terms of the rehab and he still wasn't ready until a month into his rookie season. There are so many unknown factors here for Jaylon Smith." According to ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell, Smith took out a $5 million insurance policy in the case that such an injury knocked him out of the first round altogether, but Wright does not see that scenario playing out. "What it ultimately comes down to is … I still think he's going to be a top-15 to top-20 overall pick," Wright said. "[He will get] a lot of guaranteed money, life-changing money; I certainly wouldn't fault him if he did. On the other hand, if he went back, got healthy, showed that he was back to where he was, he could be a top-five overall pick. The difference between being the No. 15 pick and being the fifth pick is $10 million guaranteed. That's kind of what you're looking at. "If he comes out, he's going to get $5-plus million guaranteed in the bank right now. You can certainly never fault him for that, but there's always the potential if he goes back for another year and shows he's heathy and goes back to where he was, he could be a top-five overall pick with a lot more guaranteed money. With that you run the risk of what if he's not back to 100 percent? What if he's rusty? What if he suffers another injury? It's a clouded situation." Ultimately, Smith opted to move forward with his pro career. — Andrew Owens