If Nolan Smith produces, it’s not hard to see him becoming a favorite of Eagles fans very soon.
The Eagles’ 22-year-old draft pick sat down with former Eagle Chris Long on the Green Light podcast and Smith’s infectious personality really came through.
He gave off a Brandon Graham vibe and even admitted as much.
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“People talk about Haason (Reddick) and me and him have the same body type,” Smith said. “But just being around BG, that energy that he brings, man. He just always has a smile on and stuff like that. Everybody brings their own energy in certain ways. Some guys from the mean mug, you can look at that muthaf— and be like ‘Damn, he ready to go.’ You can just look at a person and he up and jigging and ready to go. I’d say me and BG got the same type of motor though. We run off the same type of happy juice, energy-type.”
Graham, 35, was a first-round pick way back in 2010 and has become the longest-tenured athlete in the city. But he has a seemingly endless stream of energy, which has become very important at the NovaCare Complex.
So while as an edge rusher, Smith is probably more comparable to Reddick, it seems like his personality is more like Graham’s.
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Long saw that energy from Graham first-hand during his two years as an Eagle. He told Smith that Graham would be in football pants at 7 a.m. before a 3 p.m. practice. He’d be ready to go with a smile on his face.
Smith clearly thinks he and Graham are cut from the same cloth.
“I’d say we’re guys that love football,” Smith said. “We don’t work. We’re not working. When I stay 30 minutes extra, I’m not working. In my head, I’m not working. I’m working to get better to accomplish a goal.”
The Eagles took Smith with the No. 30 pick after moving up to take his Georgia teammate Jalen Carter at No. 9. Carter will obviously have more pressure and higher expectations, especially early, than Smith. But if Smith can make some plays as a rotational player, fans are clearly going to love him.
Throughout the interview with Long, Smith really showed his personalty. He talked about the tough standard at Georgia, lamenting that he was second team on one special teams unit. And gave a fun quote about playing in cold weather:
“I don’t mind it. I don’t care,” Smith said. “As long as I get to go out there and hit a mother—er. I don’t really care about none of that s—. And you get warmer the more you hit people. I tell people that.”
Between this interview and what Smith said to Eagles DC Sean Desai during the draft (h/t BGN) it’s not hard to see why he might be a fan favorite very soon.