How Nolan Smith became one of the most feared pass rushers in football

He had nothing to show for the first month of the season.

No sacks, no pressures, no tackles for loss, no quarterback hits. 

Four games into the 2024 season, Nolan Smith was one of 10 edge rushers league-wide with at least 100 defensive snaps and not a single defensive splash play to his name. 

He was the fourth edge rusher in Vic Fangio’s rotation, averaging just 26 snaps per game – fewer than Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and even Bryce Huff.

Then came the bye week, and a lot of things changed for this football team. Jalen Hurts stopped throwing interceptions. Cooper DeJean replaced Avonte Maddox and supercharged the secondary. Saquon Barkley’s role expanded dramatically. And Smith became one of the most feared pass rushers in football.

“He's done a great job working and he's constantly improved,” Fangio said. “The more you play, the more you practice, and he's getting more snaps now, too, since B.G. went down. Gets more practice plays, game plays. You get better. That's the only way you get better is to practice and play. He was improving in those first four weeks, too. It's come to fruition here since.”

After that four-game whitewash, which followed a one-sack rookie season, here’s what the 30^th pick in last year’s draft has done the last 16 games: 9 ½ sacks, 11 tackles for loss, 13 quarterback hits, six QB hurries, four quarterback knockdowns and two forced fumbles.

He’s only the Eagles’ second edge rusher with 9 ½ total sacks in a season before his 24^th birthday. The first was someone named Reggie White.

After recording one sack in his first 21 career games, Smith has 9 ½ in 14 games since the bye.

“Just another guy on this defense with a chip on his shoulder, for different reasons,” Zack Baun said. “For him, it might be people saying he’s too small to be on the edge, but that’s never the case in his mind. 

“He’s fast, physical, tough, dependable, he knows what to do. And the thing about him, he keeps getting better and better and better.”

Smith has taken his game to another level in the postseason with two sacks against the Packers and one vs. the Rams. He’s only the third Eagle with three sacks in a single postseason, joining Derrick Burgess in 2004 and Haason Reddick in 2022.

And his 3 ½ career postseason sacks are already 5^th-most in Eagles history, behind Brandon Graham (5 ½), Burgess (4.0), Hugh Douglas (4.0) and White (4.0).

Since sacks became an official stat in 1982, only 12 NFL players have had more postseason sacks before their 25^th birthday. 

And he just turned 24 last week.

Smith isn’t one to talk about himself or his accomplishments. Ask him about his sacks and he’ll talk about how the other defensive linemen set him for the plays he’s making or how his coaches helped him get where he is now.

He’s come so far from the guy who had one sack, one tackle for loss and three quarterback hits while playing 11 snaps per game last year. But he’s not about to pat himself on the back. Not with an NFC Championship Game coming up on Sunday against the Commanders.

“We're just trying to go 1-0 every week, I promise,” Smith said. “We're just looking forward to the next game and looking forward to the next week, and this week is a big week.”

But his teammates are sure impressed.

“Yeah, I mean, I've always recognized his work ethic and ability,” Lane Johnson said. “I feel like his rookie year, he had some shoulder issues that he was fighting through that may not have come to light, but he was battling through, and so this year, I feel like he's picked up some weight, he's stronger, so he does a great job of setting the edge. 

“He's not just a pass rusher. You know, he plays the run game really well, makes a lot of plays with effort, and he's doing a better job of getting to the quarterback. I feel like he's, when he goes to the line of scrimmage, there's a rush in there, he has a plan of attack. 

“And so, yeah, competing against him and competing against B.G., I kind of see a lot of Nolan in B.G. as far as the personality. He's always positive. He's always working, and with any adversity, it seems like you just work right through it. It's fun to see.”

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