Eagles Rookie Review: Nolan Smith needs to deliver more value in year two

One of my favorite things to do in the offseason is to compare my post-draft notes on the Eagles rookies and then analyze how they performed when they got the chance. I won’t write a full scouting report because I always do that after they are drafted. You can find Here is Nolan Smith’s scouting report.

Previously in this series: Jalen Carter

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In total

Many of you may remember that I wasn’t the biggest Nolan Smith fan last offseason. I have to be honest when I look at players, and in his college film, I just didn’t see a top pass rusher. I saw a great athlete with very high potential. Many fans wanted him at pick 10, but I thought that was too high for him. Here’s what I said about Nolan Smith last year, with some comments based on what he’s done this year.

I can’t help but have incredibly athletic players on my team. That would be fun and the upside is very high because of the motor and speed. But I saw Nolan Smith sent to the Eagles as the #10 pick and I don’t see that happening. That’s a high risk for a player with traits and limited production. I can see the Eagles liking him because his closest competition is probably Haason Reddick, but that doesn’t mean he’ll become his right away. Reddick took a few years to develop (and was a better rusher in college) and I think the same needs to happen for Nolan Smith. He’s a useful player who flies around the field and will play a role, but I want a better pass rusher as the #10 pick.

It’s only been a year, but I think I was right to be skeptical of Smith as a pass rusher. I said he would need a couple years to develop, and I hope that’s still the case, because this year he looked incredibly inexperienced as a pass rusher. When you look at his sacks and pressure situations, they were often blocked, and I didn’t see a variety of pass rush moves. He had trouble countering good offensive linemen, and I didn’t see any classic “bend the edge” rushes that you want to see from a first-round pick.

Anyone who pretends Nolan Smith’s weight isn’t a problem at all is kidding themselves, in my opinion. He’s going to have reps where he just looks small and light, and strong offensive players are going to do what they want with him. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to be a bad player. Everyone is going to lose reps. I expect Smith to be an impact player from year one and contribute a lot in a variety of ways as he develops as a pass rusher.

Although I was pretty critical of him at times, I expected Smith to be an impact player and make some plays as a freshman. Unfortunately, I don’t think he got enough plays to contribute, but we did see some successful plays where he showed off his talent and athleticism, especially in run defense.

Smith will be in a great situation because he will probably never be chipped or doubled in his first year or two because the Eagles are so talented. I prefer him as an EDGE defender in the Eagles’ 5-man fronts and more as a mobile off-ball linebacker in 4-man fronts than as a strict defensive end (except in obvious pass rushing situations). I would be so disappointed if the Eagles only drafted Smith as an every-down pass rusher. He should be used in coverage, exotic blitzes, stunts, etc. The Eagles should be creative with him and take advantage of his athletic profile and not expect him to consistently beat really good pass blocking tackles one-on-one.

I was disappointed in how Sean Desai used him overall. I don’t think we saw him on exotic blitzes or stunts enough, and they just used him too much as a pass rusher. I said I didn’t think he was good enough to win one-on-ones, and I think that played out all season.

However, there was one major issue with Nolan Smith’s game that I haven’t seen discussed much online. I expected Smith to be a jack-of-all-trades defensive back who can fill many different roles, but he’s struggled in coverage all season, which limits his ability going forward. I hope the Eagles work on his ability to switch into coverage this offseason, because I don’t think he’ll be good enough as a pass rusher to win consistently.

I think he should be viewed as a great athlete who can play many different roles rather than just an EDGE pass rusher. But I know a lot of fans will disagree with me here!

There’s no point lying and saying I never had any concerns, but I think worst case scenario you get a high energy, edgy athlete who seems like an incredible character enhancement for the locker room. I just can’t see him failing or not having value. I’m not sure he’ll be a “superstar” pass rusher (he strikes me as more of a 5-8 sack guy than 10+) unless he really improves, but he’ll be useful in so many different ways. He’s a modern do-it-all defender who can do so many things as an off-ball linebacker/EDGE defender and shouldn’t just be asked to attack the quarterback on every snap. There’s a lot you can do with Smith schematically and I’m incredibly excited to see how the Eagles use him over the next few years.

I didn’t give up on Nolan Smith because his rookie season was what I expected. I never saw the pass rusher that others saw. I wish we had seen more of him so he could have continued to develop. It felt like a lost season for Nolan Smith in many ways. But I hope he learned some valuable lessons throughout the season, even if he didn’t play much. You can see the talent…

The future

I’m very skeptical of Nolan Smith, as you can see, but that doesn’t mean he’s worthless. That’s a very obvious statement, but while you can teach technique, you can’t teach athleticism. Nolan Smith has the kind of athleticism that was worth a first-round pick. If he works hard on his technique as a pass rusher, there’s no reason he can’t be a valuable pass rusher in the future. Since I wasn’t around before the draft, I still don’t see him as a 10+ sack player, but I expect him to be more valuable than he was last season.

Additionally, there is something none of us can predict, and that is how hard players work off the field. Everything I hear about Nolan Smith is that he is a fantastic guy who wants nothing more than to be great. A lot of Eagles fans seem to really like him because of what he says off the field (so I can imagine this article doesn’t always go down well!), but the work he puts in off the field will likely determine whether he can perform to his maximum.

Nolan Smith seems like a fantastic guy and I hope he gets more playing time this year. My gut still tells me he will never develop into the pass rusher many fans hope he will be, but I still think he can be extremely valuable as an athletic prodigy who can pressure the quarterback, be a solid run defender, and drop into coverage when asked. I look forward to seeing how Vic Fangio views him and I will keep a very close eye on him in the future. And of course, one should never forget that there are always things going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about!

If you want even more analysis on the Eagles rookies, I talked about some of them on my podcast at Eagles Pin-Pull Network, which you can find Here. Feel free to listen!