Eagles news: DeVonta Smith’s brilliance, defensive draft prospect shines
You don’t have to answer via email or anything. We don’t need a show of hands. This is mostly a mental exercise. How often do you find yourself thinking of those graceful and artistic catches we saw DeVonta Smith make for the Philadelphia Eagles this season? Think about all of those beautiful sideline catches or that soaring grab that he snagged in Washington versus the Commanders. The best part of that one was the reaction of Washington’s sideline. Sorry… We’re getting sidetracked (DeVonta will do that to you).
The point is this. The Birds have a star on their hands in this guy. He only has two years of work on tape, and he’s dominating. He doesn’t even have a full grasp of what he’s doing yet. He’s still learning.
As far as we’re concerned, he deserves his spot among the NFL’s elite now, but recently, he landed outside of Pro Football Focus’ list of the game’s top 100 players.
Related Story. DeVonta Smith sets Eagles Twitter ablaze. light
Eagles news: DeVonta Smith earns an honorable mention, but we want more.
Here are a couple of nice reads if you missed them. Pro Football Focus released their top 101 NFL players ranking from the 2022-2023 NFL season. 13 Eagles made the cut. We still aren’t satisfied as DeVonta Smith’s name was missing.
Shortly thereafter, however, PFF named ten players that landed just outside the top 101. This time DeVonta earned a mention. Again, he’s top 101 in our book, and he should be in yours. Here’s what Sam Monson, the writer of this one, said about Number 6.
"Smith perhaps suffers from the impact that A.J. Brown made on the Eagles offense, at least in terms of perception, even if it can be argued that he benefited from it on the field. Smith racked up almost 1,400 yards, including the playoff run to the Super Bowl, while scoring eight touchdowns and generating 2.00 yards per route run for the year. Smith was particularly effective after the catch, breaking 15 tackles with the ball in his hands. He accumulated six drops from 154 targets in total."
DeVonta Smith earned a 2022 PFF grade of 80.4. We’ll take that, but we’re still respectfully waiting on Monson’s retraction.
NFL Scouting Combine news: Potential Eagles interior defensive lineman prospect shines.
The first evening of the NFL Scouting Combines didn’t disappoint. Workouts were entertaining, and so were the 40-yard dash drills.
A young man that has been connected with the Eagles in a couple of mock drafts showed and proved. Keep an eye on Calijah Kancey as we move through the pre-draft process. He’s been mocked to the Birds at both the tenth-overall selection and at the 30th. It will be interesting to see how he’s valued after the NFL Combine.
