Eagles snap counts: Nolan Smith quietly becomes top edge rusher originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
With Brandon Graham out for the season, second-year player Nolan Smith has quietly become the Eagles’ top edge rusher in the rotation.
In Sunday’s too-close-for-comfort 22-16 win over the Panthers, Smith finished with 52/71 snaps to lead the edge rusher group, followed by Josh Sweat (46 snaps), Jalyx Hunt (38) and Chuck Harris (4).
After Sweat had clearly been the Eagles’ top edge player for the first 10 weeks of the season, Smith has been the top snap-getter in each of the last three weeks. This jump clearly coincides with Brandon Graham’s season-ending triceps injury.
It seems like the Eagles didn’t want to increase Sweat’s usage — and after he faded late in the 2023 season that makes sense — so it has been Smith and Hunt who have seen the biggest jump in their play-time. Smith has become the top guy in the rotation, while third-round rookie Hunt played a career-high 38 defensive snaps on Sunday.
Through the first 10 games of the season, Smith played 42% of the Eagles’ defensive snaps. In the three games since, he has played 72% of their snaps.
Harris on Sunday got his first four snaps with the Eagles. He was claimed on Nov. 26. But this has basically been a three-man rotation the last two weeks without Graham.
The Eagles got some pressure on Bryce Young on Sunday but sacked him just once and that sack came from an inside linebacker. Sweat had an opportunity for a huge sack in the fourth quarter but allowed Young to escape.
Other defensive notes
• Quinyon Mitchell was the only player on defense to play all 71 snaps. Right behind him were Zack Baun (70), Nakobe Dean (69), Darius Slay (69) and Tristin McCollum (68).
• Give credit to C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who toughed it out to play 60 of 71 snaps. He had to leave briefly in the first half to get checked for a concussion. And then he fought through a painful injury to his backside in the second half.
• Jalen Carter played 64 of 71 snaps and tied a career-high with six pressures, per NextGen Stats. He had a pressure rate of 15.8% against the Panthers. Over the last four games, Carter has played 255 of 273 snaps (93.4%). The other DT snaps from Sunday: Milton Williams 46, Jordan Davis 25, Moro Ojomo 21, Thomas Booker 4.
• The Eagles were already without Reed Blankenship (concussion) on Sunday, which is why McCollum started at safety. But they were also without Sydney Brown (knee). So when CJGJ had to leave the game, Avonte Maddox filled in at safety and ended up playing 11 snaps. Isaiah Rodgers was the next guy on the field, getting a couple snaps in the dime package.
Offensive notes
• The Eagles had just 58 snaps and 56 offensive plays on Sunday. They had just eight offensive possessions not counting the final kneel down at the end of the game.
• Jalen Hurts and his entire offensive line played all 58 snaps.
• At WR, A.J. Brown led the way with 55 snaps, followed by DeVonta Smith (52), Johnny Wilson (29), Jahan Dotson (24). The Eagles’ passing offense wasn’t very good on Sunday; they finished with 83 net passing yards. Brown showed some frustration on Sunday and he wasn’t even targeted until late in the first half. He led the way for the receivers with 4 catches for 43 yards and Smith had 4 catches for 37 yards and a touchdown.
• At RB, Saquon Barkley played 44 of 58 snaps and had 124 yards. He broke LeSean McCoy’s single-season franchise rushing record early in the fourth quarter and is still on pace to take down Eric Dickerson’s NFL record. Kenny Gainwell played 14 snaps (he had 3 carries for 26 yards) and Will Shipley didn’t see any time on offense.
• Without Dallas Goedert, Grant Calcaterra was TE1 and played 53 of 58 snaps. C.J. Uzomah played 14 and E.J. Jenkins played 2. Calcaterra had 3 catches for 16 yards and the first touchdown catch of his NFL career.
• OL Tyler Steen and FB Khari Blasingame each got 1 offensive snap in a big personnel package. Cooper DeJean got 1 snap on offense as the deep guy in victory formation.
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