Aldon Smith was an NFL edge rusher drafted seventh overall by the San Francisco 49ers in 2011. He recorded 52.5 career sacks, made the 2012 All-Pro team, and also played for the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys. He died on June 13, 2026, in San Jose, California, at 36. Early reports said the medical examiner had not yet given a cause.
The search is for the player, not a namesake. This timeline stays on teams, seasons, and the public totals. It does not recap off-field cases.
Background and college
Smith was born September 25, 1989, in Greenwood, Mississippi, and played high school football at Raytown High School in Raytown, Missouri. He played at Missouri from 2008 to 2010, redshirting in 2008. He was Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year in 2009 and first-team All-Big 12 in 2010. Those college notes are the standard biography on his Wikipedia entry, which cites contemporary coverage.
The 49ers took him in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, seventh overall. He wore number 99 for most of his career and number 58 with Dallas. He was listed as a defensive end and also played outside linebacker.
San Francisco 49ers
As a rookie in 2011 he played all 16 games, mostly as a reserve, and finished with 14.0 sacks and 37 tackles. That sack total was a 49ers rookie record. He was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team.
2012 was the peak. He started all 16 games, recorded 19.5 sacks and 66 tackles, and added an interception. He was a first-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowl selection. Those 19.5 sacks were also a 49ers single-season record. Across his first two seasons he had 33.5 sacks, and he reached 30 career sacks in 27 games, the fastest in league history at the time.
He played 11 games in 2013 (8.5 sacks) and 7 games in 2014 (2.0 sacks). League suspensions cut into both of those seasons and kept him off the field in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The 49ers released him in August 2015. The missed years are why a career sack total that started that fast did not keep climbing in a straight line.
Oakland Raiders
Smith signed with the Oakland Raiders in 2015 and played 9 games, with 3.5 sacks and 28 tackles. He did not appear in a game for the Raiders in 2016 or 2017 because of suspension. That was the end of his time in Oakland. Box scores for those seasons, not later recaps, are the right check if a total looks off.
Dallas Cowboys and the end of the playing career
He returned in 2020 with the Dallas Cowboys, starting all 16 games. He had 5.0 sacks, 48 tackles, and two fumble recoveries, one returned for a touchdown. In 2021 he spent time with the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason and was released before the season. He did not play another NFL game.
ESPN and the Kansas City Star reported that he died on June 13, 2026, in San Jose. He was 36. Statements quoted from the Santa Clara County medical examiner in those first reports said the cause and manner of death were pending. This piece does not go past that.
Career numbers
Regular-season totals below are the figures carried on his Wikipedia entry, which points to Pro Football Reference. He played 75 games and started 53.
| Year | Team | Games | Tackles | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 49ers | 16 | 37 | 14.0 |
| 2012 | 49ers | 16 | 66 | 19.5 |
| 2013 | 49ers | 11 | 34 | 8.5 |
| 2014 | 49ers | 7 | 15 | 2.0 |
| 2015 | Raiders | 9 | 28 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | Cowboys | 16 | 48 | 5.0 |
| Career | 75 | 228 | 52.5 |
He also had 1 interception, 5 forced fumbles, and 3 fumble recoveries. Seasons with no games are left off the table on purpose. Counting a suspended year as a zero-sack season would make the average look quieter than the seasons he actually played.
Where the numbers come from
Career totals move around when a site counts playoffs, or when a sack is later changed on the official sheet. The table here is regular season only. If a number disagrees with a highlight clip, use the season line, not the clip.
Linking the table to Wikipedia, ESPN, and the Kansas City Star is the same rule we use on tool posts: a factual sentence should have a page a reader can open. That is the practical side of outbound links, and it is why this timeline does not invent a playoff line or a cause of death.
If you are checking a claim the way you would check a product page, start with the primary record. The steps in how to evaluate a SaaS tool before you pay are about software. The first step still fits a stat: find the page that owns the number before you repeat it.
How to read the record
Two totals get mixed up in recaps. The 33.5 sacks are the first two seasons only. The 52.5 sacks are the regular-season career total, including Oakland and Dallas. The 19.5 in 2012 is the single-season high, not a career number. If a graphic says he had 19.5 for his career, it has collapsed the peak year into the whole record.
Playoff games are not in the table. Adding them without a separate line would double-count a postseason snap as a regular-season sack. If you need the postseason line, take it from the same statistical source Wikipedia cites, and keep it separate.
A stats mirror can also copy an old table and miss the 2020 season. If a page stops at Oakland, it is incomplete, not a correction. Check the season list before you quote a career total. The same "open the primary page" step is why we link sources in free backlink checks instead of trusting a screenshot of a report.
The takeaway
Smith's NFL record is a short, high peak: a top-10 draft pick, a record rookie sack year, an All-Pro season in 2012, then interrupted years with the 49ers, Raiders, and Cowboys, and a 16-game return in Dallas in 2020. Career regular-season sack total: 52.5. He died on June 13, 2026, at 36, with the cause still pending in the first official statements.
