Are the Eagles finally seeing the real Nolan Smith?

Are the Eagles finally seeing the real Nolan Smith? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

From the outside, it sure looks like something’s clicked for Nolan Smith.

The effort has always been there. The production hasn’t. The last few weeks he’s shown up in a big way. But Smith insists nothing’s really changed.

He has the game of football whittled down to two things: Work hard during the week, play hard on Sundays.

Right now – finally – the formula is paying off.

“Man, I just try to work,” the 23-year-old Smith said at his locker Thursday. “I just try to work on my job and do my part and just take every day one day at a time and try to get better.

“Coach Wash (pass rush coach Jim Washburn) has been working with me a lot. We work before practice and after practice every day. Still just trying to learn the game and how everything flows. And I just feel like it’s slowing down a little bit for me.”

It’s way too soon to say Smith has arrived, but the Eagles desperately need this sort of production on a consistent basis from their second of two 1st-round picks last year.

His first 21 career games, he had one sack, one tackle for loss and four quarterback hits. The last two, he has two sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits.

Part of the equation is that he didn’t play much last year. But another part is that he didn’t earn playing time.

In meaningful games, he averaged fewer than 10 snaps per game last year. This year he’s at 26.

He said last year was important for him and indicated that he may have been judged unfairly by his lack of playing time and playmaking because behind the scenes he was learning so much.

“I mean, last year, man, I was behind an excellent group of guys,” he said. “I had Derrick Barnett in front of me. I had B.G., I had Hass (Haason Reddick), I had (Josh) Sweat. So it was more like I was learning. I know some people don’t see it, but that’s mostly how you learn and be a sponge and just absorb everything…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/eagles-finally-seeing-real-nolan-134303101.html

Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2024-10-25 13:43:03

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