Former All-Pro Aldon Smith dedicated to mentoring NFL rookies

WCG’s lead draft analyst speaks with the former star pass-rusher about his life after football and what’s coming next.

When you hear the name Aldon Smith, your first reaction is probably, “Oh yeah, I remember him!”

Smith made a name for himself at an early age as a football star. In the two collegiate seasons he played for Missouri, his dominant tape with the Tigers saw him selected by the 49ers with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, a class highly regarded as one of the best in recent NFL history.

As a rookie in 2011, Smith placed second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. He had 14.0 sacks, tying him for fifth in the NFL and placing him 2.5 sacks ahead of the award’s eventual winner, Von Miller. The following year, he was second in the league with 19.5 sacks. He earned first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl nominations in the process. His total of 33.5 sacks in his first two seasons is the most in NFL history.

The 2013 season was another good one, as he had 8.5 sacks in just 11 games. However, the 5 games he missed were a result of his entering rehab following a DUI and marijuana possession arrest in Sept. 2013. A 9-game suspension followed in 2014, and after another DUI in 2015, the 49ers released him. He played the 2015 season with the Raiders but only appeared in 9 games.

Smith ended up missing the 2016 through 2019 seasons due to a suspension. He played one more year for the Cowboys in 2020, but besides an offseason stint with Seattle the following season, his time in the NFL came to an end soon after.

As one of the biggest “what ifs” in NFL history, Smith has turned his life around and is hoping to use his story as a way to help other players entering the league.

Starting with the Jaguars and Raiders, Smith will serve as a mentor to the 2024 rookie class. Smith will have intimate conversations with players, leaning into the most vulnerable parts of his story with the hopes of helping just one athlete avoid a hiccup that could negatively impact their career.

“I don’t think I was necessarily super trusting,” Smith said of his time in the NFL. “Or maybe I just wasn’t ready for that. I hope, with my approach, my resume, and my ability to connect, I have a different effect. That truly is information; education is everything. The more you know, the more you know, and what you don’t, you don’t.”

After a release from prison in 2023, Smith has retired from football and started a new bran by the name “I.M. Loading…”. The “I.M.” part of the platform stands for “Intelligent Movement”, indicating that the more intelligent moves you make in life, the more likely you are to become the future person you want to be. The “Loading” aspect will either be a podcast or documentary surrounding his story and is meant to represent the fact that we as human beings always have room to grow.

“A lot of honest conversations with myself,” Smith mentioned to Windy City Gridiron on what has helped him bounce back from low points in his life. “Once I got the answers to those questions, consistently putting the plans of action that were going to be beneficial to being in a better space, putting those in action, and overall developing [my] relationship with myself.

“When I was younger, I used to think I had to be angry to play football, and I had that chip on my shoulder. [I thought] it wasn’t really going to hurt me, and I think it was just what I thought was necessary to be who I needed to be at the time.”

As a top-10 pick in his own draft class, Smith knows what it takes to succeed in the NFL after being an early selection in the NFL Draft. With notable top-10 picks in this year’s class like Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, and the Bears’ tandem of quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Rome Odunze, players selected would be smart to learn from Smith’s successes and downfalls.

“Be aware of why you’re there,” Smith explained in his advice to this year’s rookies. “I think, first and foremost, that is very important. I mean this in all of the best way, but I wasn’t in love with football. I was good at playing football, but this wasn’t my everything. I think there’s a lot of guys who have that same type of narrative and feeling that they go around with that [mentality of] this is just a check for them. That in itself is important, because that will also show in how you live life. I you don’t really care about something, it’s going to be a lot tougher to do a lot of the things that are asked from you and do that consistently.”