Getty Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni leaves the field in celebration after beating the NY Giants in the 2022 playoffs.
The Philadelphia Eagles love fortifying the trenches, especially along the defensive line. Jalen Carter is one name being floated to them in the first round. Another one? Nolan Smith, his college teammate at the University of Georgia.
The 6-foot-2, 238-pounder possesses freakish athleticism, perhaps best exemplified by his 4.39-second 40 time and 41.5-inch vertical jump. He’s explosive off the edge and light-footed in space. He’s the prototypical edge rusher the Eagles have long valued.
The Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi has Smith landing in Philadelphia in his first mock draft. He sees the Eagles trading down two spots in Round 1 to take the Maxwell Club’s Defensive Player of the Year at No. 12. He explained why a trade makes sense on a recent appearance on JAKIB Sports:
“Howie Roseman, we all know this, is a guy that likes to make a deal,” Maaddi said, “and if there is an opportunity for him to be aggressive and move up because there’s a guy that they want, he’ll do that. If there’s an opportunity to move back and accumulate more assets and still take somebody that they think [can make an impact]. This is a team that is coming off a Super Bowl and you can be aggressive and you can also look toward the future, and I think there’s a lot of areas where they could go.”
.@RobMaaddi has the #Eagles trading down and selecting Georgia edge rusher Nolan Smith in his first mock draft
Scouting Report: ‘Hard to Move Off of His Spot’
Smith played outside linebacker at Georgia, but he was essentially an edge rusher in Kirby Smart’s 3-4 base scheme. He racked up 12.5 sacks and 110 tackles (20 for loss) during his four years at the SEC powerhouse school. He also won two BCS national championships there, including one alongside Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean in 2021.
Here is a scouting report, via NFL Media’s Lance Zierlein:
Smith is hard to move off of his spot due to his technique and leverage, and he can be disruptive when firing into gaps. He can get off the mark as a rusher, but lacks the counters and contact balance to consistently assault the pocket at a high rate. Smith falls below the size standards some team might have for a 3-4 outside linebacker, but he plays team-first defense with quality technique that should help him translate to the pros.
Awwwww sheeeeeeeit. Nolan Smith hit ’em with the stanky leg
Meanwhile, Pro Football Network’s Ian Cummings called Smith a “tremendous athlete,” then hyped up his potential as a player who could wreak havoc off the edge: “He has an explosive first step and can surge downhill into blockers, leveraging his burst into power. He has the explosiveness to quickly throttle up and pierce through gaps, and he’s a springy mover in tight spaces.”
Howie Roseman Keeps Building D-Line Depth
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman loves building his defensive line depth through the draft and this year should be no different. The team went from 21 combined sacks (second-worst in the NFL) in 2021 to a franchise-record 70 sacks in 2022. Roseman clearly has a thing for pass rushers, particularly interior defenders, and didn’t deny it when asked about his philosophy at training camp last season.
“I think you’ve seen over the last few years kind of an increased emphasis from us as a front office in interior pass rushers,” Roseman told reporters in July 2022. “When you look at it and you look at the quarterbacks who are really effective in this league, you have to make sure that you’re affecting them in the middle and getting in their face and doing things, because sometimes with edge rushers they can step up and have a clear throwing lane.”