Eagles news: ESPN predicts sack totals for rookie Nolan Smith

If you were paying attention you probably noticed something. One of the most commonly-written headlines immediately after the 2023 NFL Draft involved the Philadelphia Eagles and executive vice president/general manager Howie Roseman’s ability to snag both Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith with a pair of first-round choices. Here’s why that’s interesting.

Ahead of the most recent selection meeting, there were mock drafts that added Smith to Philly’s nest at the tenth-overall selection, and though opinions vary, had that happened, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find Birds fans who would have agreed with that idea.

Having Carter fall to the Eagles and Philly’s ability to trade up one spot to land him has to be seen as a win. It’s also hard to complain about Nolan Smith’s selection at 30. Many believed he’d be selected higher.

The questions now are about what comes next. What if this doesn’t work? What if it does? What can we expect from both in their first seasons as Eagles? They’ll be expected to contribute immediately. Some are already making predictions about what that production might look like.

Eagles news: ESPN’s SACKseer tool predicts Nolan Smith’s sack total through the first five seasons of his rookie deal.

We all love numbers and stats, right? There’s nothing like discussions about those overall grades Pro Football Focus and EA’s Madden NFL game dish out. Sometimes, it isn’t that deep. Sometimes, we just want to know what a quarterback’s completion percentage is and how many sacks an EDGE star racks up.

Then, there’s that prognosticator that lives in all of us. Raise your hand if you have tried to forecast what Nolan Smith might accomplish statistically in year one.

ESPN took their shot. Using their SACKseer system, they made guesses about rankings and stats. This one sits behind a paywall. With that being said, we won’t share any direct quotes here, but here’s what we can tell you. Their historical comps for Smith are Barkevious Mingo and Trent Cole.

No one would complain if either of those comparisons wound up panning out, but you’d like to see their believed sack total (19.6 during his first five seasons) be a little higher. We’re talking about less than five sacks per season there.