What Nolan Smith's emergence says about the Eagles defensive front

PHILADELPHIA — Maybe there is something in the water.

Nolan Smith Jr. nodded at the dozen green bottles at the foot of his locker. Mountain Valley. The Philadelphia Eagles edge rusher can drain four liters of that stuff in a single day. Ben VanSumeren, four lockers down, is the one who sold him on it. (The linebacker’s friend’s father is the company’s president.) The pitch was easy. Secretariat once drank the bottles by the bucket. Not a bad association for a player who’s been increasing his horsepower.

Smith only needs 36 more snaps to surpass his rookie total. His two sacks and two tackles for loss have already doubled his 2023 totals that once made his development dubious. It’s only been six games. But last year’s No. 30 pick has crossed a noteworthy and long-awaited threshold: Smith is fulfilling a substantial role along the defensive front.

Smith is one of two featured edge rushers when defensive coordinator Vic Fangio fields his base 3-4 package. The role supplied Smith’s first career start. Fangio and Smith both downplayed the accolade’s significance. The New York Giants had simply deployed 12 personnel. Had there been one tight end instead of two, Smith would’ve been on the sideline watching the Eagles play nickel.

“Our starters are Bryce (Huff) and (Josh) Sweat, man,” Smith said.

Still, the moment underlined Smith’s progress. At most a platoon player in 2023, Smith spent the majority of his time working on both his frame and his game in the background behind Haason Reddick, Sweat and Brandon Graham. He entered the offseason knowing he needed to get stronger to play with more power. In training camp, Smith said he packed on “seven pounds of muscle” while training in Los Angeles. Since returning to Philly, Smith credited position coach Jeremiah Washburn for the time they spend together in the film room doing a “deep dive” into offensive tackles. Washburn, once an offensive line coach for the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins, helps Smith identify weaknesses to exploit.

“Even if they not telling stuff on the field, Coach Wash gonna find it out,” Smith said.

Smith didn’t delve into their details. Nor did he discuss the techniques he’s refined as a rusher. (“I can’t talk about the bag. The bag is secret, man.”) But it’s evident Smith is more effective playing with power. Officially listed at 6 foot 2, 238 pounds, Smith bull-rushed Giants left tackle Joshua Ezeudu before sacking Daniel Jones on third-and-3.

Later in the game, Smith fought through a stiff-arm block and almost stripped Jones as he was throwing. The rush saved a potential touchdown. Nearly 30 yards downfield, safeties C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Reed Blankenship didn’t pass off assignments as they crossed the field, and Giants receiver Malik Nabers stuck out his hand realizing he was wide open. But Jones needed to bring his hand down to avoid Smith. Jalen Carter swallowed him milliseconds later. Smith pumped his fist, swatting the air twice.

“The blood’s in the water, man,” said defensive tackle Jordan Davis, Smith’s teammate at Georgia. “He’s smelling it, he’s sniffing it, he’s ready to get after it.”

Smith embodies the ascension of the entire defensive front. Through the first four games, only three teams produced fewer sacks than the Eagles (6). Their 13 sacks in the last two weeks since the bye are four more than any other team. Some elements were favorable for such a reaction. The Cleveland Browns were surrendering an NFL-high 26 sacks entering their game against the Eagles. But the Giants nearly doubled the total they entered with (14) after giving up eight sacks to the Eagles. Several players attributed the spurt to a focused mentality. There was no seminal adjustment by Fangio, they said.

“We’re not actively looking for sacks,” Davis said. “We play within the scheme of the defense. But, when (the moment) comes, we got to make the plays that come to us.”

The sacks only tell part of the story. Smith’s involvement in base packages spell out Fangio’s belief in him as a complete player. Of Smith’s 47 snaps in 3-4 alignments, he’s defended the run 26 times, dropped back in coverage 12 times and rushed the quarterback nine times. It’s his role against the run that’s perhaps most notable. Huff, who signed a three-year, $51.1 million contract, is almost exclusively deployed in nickel packages, which doesn’t yet fully fulfill the organization’s expectations that he can develop into an every-down defender.

Huff ended his early-season drought as a pass rusher. He logged a half-sack against the Browns and, against the Giants, pummeled Jones on a third-and-11 situation. Fangio said Huff is “getting off better” at the snap, and Huff’s shifted technique on pass rushes, which includes sometimes starting with his hand in the ground instead of standing, has resulted in “not getting stuck early” on blocks.

Huff is almost purely a pass rusher. He’s only dropped back in coverage on five snaps, according to TruMedia. Smith (17), Sweat (13) and Graham (10) are the most frequent edge rushers involved in coverage. Smith’s versatility, specifically, has freed up opportunities for “simulated blitzes” — pressure schemes that aim to fool quarterbacks by exchanging a linebacker, nickel, etc., for a lineman or edge rusher in a four-man rush — that have yielded sacks. Against the Browns, Smith dropped back in coverage while nickel Cooper DeJean blitzed from the other side. DeJean hit Deshaun Watson, who was finished off by Milton Williams and Thomas Booker IV.

“It all has to work together in order for it to work,” DeJean said.

Sans using Smith, Sweat or Graham in coverage, Fangio would not so freely blitz linebacker Nakobe Dean. The 2022 third-round pick had a career-high two sacks against the Giants — both in simulated pressures. There’s a notable variance in the timing of those plays. The first occurred on a first-and-10 situation, the second on a third-and-7. The former reveals how the Eagles want to maintain unpredictability, which also requires the players who are dropping, like Smith, to be reliable if the play turns out to be a run.

“There’s never a guarantee of anything,” Fangio said. “But if you can hit them right, they do have a good effect.”

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Fangio’s game plan against the Giants also created a favorable scenario to blitz Dean frequently. The Eagles played zone coverage on 89.1 percent of their plays, according to TruMedia. They’d entered the game playing zone on 59.4 percent of their snaps. Beyond dropping Smith, Sweat and Graham into zone coverage, the secondary blanketed their assignments while playing zone during six favorable third-and-long situations. Opponents had before attacked the Eagles by getting rid of the ball quickly in short zones. The first four quarterbacks averaged 2.65 seconds before release. Jones averaged 3.17 seconds per throw.

“Sometimes they save us, sometimes we save them,” cornerback Darius Slay Jr. said.

The Eagles pass rush now must direct its momentum at perhaps its best opposing quarterback yet in Joe Burrow. The Cincinnati Bengals have surrendered 10 sacks in their last three games. Smith, now near the core of Philly’s defensive cast, holds critical influence on the results that follow. His development remains ongoing in his second year. He attempts a perspective that lasts through the lulls and seizes on the streaks when they arrive.

“Man, I say development is one of those things that you’ve got to work on it every day,” Smith said. “… Sometimes it’s like, f—, and I’m ebbing and flowing and I’m trying to figure things out. But once you figure it out, you just gotta keep going up and ride that wave.”

(Top photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images; screenshots via NFL+)