Philadelphia Eagles news: 2 Aaron Moorehead quotes on DeVonta Smith

As a player, in 40 career games with two NFL starts (if you include what he did in the postseason), Philadelphia Eagles wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead hauled in 36 receptions for 371 yards and a touchdown. Now, while that probably wasn’t the type of career he imagined for himself, he did spend the 2003 to 2007 seasons in an Indianapolis Colts jersey. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Coach landed on his feet as he found out he had a penchant for coaching. There were stops from 2009 to 2019 with New Mexico, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt. Birds fans met him and got to know him in 2020 as he joined Doug Pederson’s staff.

When the coaching overhaul came, he was retained by Nick Sirianni, and that’s where we pick up. It’s been quite the ride already as he’s transitioned from having DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery in the meetings to welcoming his highly-touted rookie, the most recent Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith.

The Philadelphia Eagles WR Coach opens up about DeVonta Smith.

Recently, Aaron sat with the media to talk a little Philadelphia Eagles football, and as you might expect, the man formerly known as the ‘Slim Reaper’ was one of the topics of discussion. When asked about Number 6 allowing his personality to be seen, Coach had this to say.

"The one thing that I’ve seen with DeVonta Smith (and) I hope you guys have, from the first day he got here until now, how much kind of looser he’s been. He’s kind of just been able to be himself. The room’s embraced him. There hasn’t been any, ‘Oh, you got picked. You might take my spot.’ It’s just been, ‘You know what? This guy’s a good player. He’s here to help our team.’ I think that’s allowed him to kind of come out of his shell and be himself probably quicker than he thought he was going to be able to. Obviously, my familiarity with him, that’s helped as well. I’ve really come to appreciate who he is as a young man right now."

Some of you may not know this (or remember it if you did know), but Coach Moorehead recruited Smith to play at Texas A&M when the budding star was coming out of high school. On the topic of them being on the same side, Moorehead said this.

"There’s so much to like about this guy. I had a little insight to him just because I recruited him coming out of high school and had a chance to visit his town and where he’s from. You know that background part of it, which is cool, and you knew what he was built with then. To watch his career flourish, you see a guy catch the game-winning catch in the National Championship Game as a true freshman, that tells you all you need to know about somebody. The game’s not too big for him."

In 47 games at the collegiate level, Smith hauled in 235 career receptions for 3,965 yards and 46 trips to the end zone. He comes to Philly as their most decorated wide receiver ever, having won two College Football Playoff National Championships. In his first, he caught the game-winning score as a freshman. Talk about dreams coming true huh?

Smith also took home the Heisman Trophy, as mentioned, to go along with the College Football Playoff National Championship Offensive MVP Award, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, and the Biletnikoff Award.

He was also the winner of the Paul Hornung Award, the Associated Press’ College Football Player of the Year Award, the Sporting News College Football Player of the Year Award. In 2020, he was also a Unanimous All-American, the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, and he finished his career as a two-time First-team All-SEC nod.

If you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan that’s worried about the skill set translating to the next level, don’t be. This young man is going to be fine. This is as close to a sure thing as someone can be.