PHILADELPHIA – Nolan Smith has a unique way of putting things in perspective when it comes to football and how grateful he is to be playing a game he absolutely loves to play.
After posting the first multi-sack game of his career, and doing it in a playoff game no less, he was asked about the grimy, gritty, nasty way he plays, and he went in a very different direction than you might think.
“I’m supposed to be on a port, I’m supposed to be on the graveyard shift right now, anchoring down boats, so I go out there and I just want to make my momma proud and the 10 guys next to me proud,” he said. “When they turn on the film they know (number) 3 is gonna be flying to the ball. I try to do that every day in practice.”
Give him points for not spouting cliches.
Give him points, too, for the season he's having. He may very well be the Eagles’ biggest personnel surprise in a season full of them, with players such as Zack Baun, Mekhi Becton moving to guard, rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean playing like vets, and Jalen Carter becoming an iron man when it comes to his snap count.
Smith went from playing just 16 percent of the defensive snaps to 52 percent this year with Vic Fangio in charge of the defense.
“I didn't have any expectations,” said the defensive coordinator. “I shoot high. Put no limits on anybody and let's just see where he went, and he kept improving.”
Smith had one sack last year after being drafted 30th overall. This year he posted 6.5 sacks during the regular season and now has 8.5 after his devastating game against the Packers and their quarterback Jordan Love. Think that’s easy dragging down Love, think again. The QB had been sacked just 14 times in 15 games.
It’s not just his pass rush that has gotten better, according to Fangio.
“(It’s been) in all facets of playing the edge for us,” he said. “The run, the pass. Pass, meaning rush the passer. Pass, meaning dropping when he does have to drop. He's improved in all areas.”
Smith, who will turn 24 the fday before the Eagles host the L.A. Rams in the Divisional Round, didn’t take any credit for his two sacks against the Packers.
“My d-tackles had good rushes and we set it up, but man, my d-tackles,” he said. “Shout out to Milt (Williams). I might give Milt half my playoff check, because we were joking about it.”
That’s not the first time Williams got a shout out, Jalen Carter did it earlier in the year for one of Carter’s sacks.
Smith was back on special teams, too, a place he made his home as a rookie, and loved every minute of it, mentioning the turnover linebacker Oren Burks forced on the game’s opening kickoff.
“Oren’s play got me so excited, but I was so excited to be out there,” he said. “This is football. This is what I signed up for. Kickoff, punt return, all that, this is what I’m here for, I don’t care nothing about, ‘you’re this or that,’ it’s football, and we get an opportunity to play a game we love.
“Kickoff is part of the game. I go out here and try to run through somebody. My friend Lukas Van Ness was on the other side of the kickoff. I knew him a little bit, so I was trying to set him up the whole time.”
