It took a while – 23 games, to be exact – but Nolan Smith finally showed up.
Smith, the Eagles’ 23-year-old edge rusher, had by far his best game as a pro Sunday in the win over the Browns.
Caveat: It was the Browns.
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But Smith’s first 22 games were so disappointing and so lacking in impact plays that a big performance against anybody is welcome.
“He played well,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Tuesday. “I think (he’s) one of those guys that's been improving each and every week a little bit. And some of it's just from playing more, some of it's learning more experience. It's a process. And then late in the game, had a really nice play when they ran a special play to our left.”
Smith, the 30th pick taken in last year’s draft, played 21 snaps rotating with Josh Sweat (39 snaps), Bryce Huff (31 snaps) and Brandon Graham (23 snaps). In addition to three tackles, his first sack of the season and a quarterback hit, he made a huge play in a crucial situation with four minutes left in the game, racing across the field to knock Deshaun Watson out of bounds for a two-yard gain on a 2nd-and-goal from the 5-yard-line.
After a false start, Watson threw incomplete, the Browns settled for a field goal and the Eagles ran out the clock on a 20-16 win.
Philadelphia Eagles
Smith’s Pro Football Reference grade for Sunday was a season-high 77.8. He averaged a 58.0 grade the first four weeks.
Smith’s rookie year was an almost completely lost season. He averaged only eight snaps through the first 14 games before bumping up late in the season after Matt Patricia replaced Sean Desai as defensive coordinator.
With Haason Reddick gone, Smith's playing time has increased dramatically to about 25 snaps per game, but he didn’t have much to show for it until Sunday.
The play along the sideline was by far the biggest of his career.
“He sensed it, applied what we've taught him by the formation and had a great reaction and a great play and his speed allowed him to make it,” Fangio said.
“I can't remember who it was in an earlier game but (there was a similar) play that another team had shown and we practiced against it a couple weeks ago and he kind of remembered that and applied it. That's learning football. And those are things you can't put a price on.”
The Eagles’ edge rushers in general have shown signs of life after failing to record a sack the first three weeks of the season.
Former Pro Bowler Josh Sweat ended a streak of 11 consecutive games without a sack in Tampa and Brandon Graham picked up his first of the year. And then on Sunday, Sweat made it two games in a row with a sack for the first time since Weeks 6 and 7 last year, Smith recorded his first of the year and even Bryce Huff scored half a sack, his first anything this year. Jalen Carter also added a sack, and Milton Williams, Thomas Booker and Cooper DeJean each had half a sack.
Granted it was all against one of the worst offensive lines in football but at least it was something.
"Nolan Smith made a hell of a play," Nick Sirianni said after the game. "I've seen Deshaun Watson be Superman before. He had some plays today that I'm like, ‘Oh, man, that looked like Deshaun Watson,’ and he makes a play where they run a zone read, and Nolan levels it out and makes the play, and then I think it was Coop that cleaned it up. That was a huge, huge, huge play."