Philadelphia Eagles WR Devonta Smith had a big week this week. A few days ago, he became a father as he and his wife welcomed a baby girl. Then, on Sunday, he started his third season in the NFL with a touchdown and a testament to his new child in the endzone.
Following Philly’s 25-20 win over the New England Patriots, Smith described the feeling of scoring the first touchdown of his season and celebrating by ‘rocking the baby’. He said it was his teammate’s idea and he just took it and ran with it after his score.
“It was amazing, man,” said Smith. “Everybody was talking about, like, ‘When you score, you’ve got to rock the baby’. It was just amazing.”
Smith finished in the season opener with seven catches for 47 yards and the touchdown. He tied AJ Brown for the Eagle’s lead in receptions while also being the only offensive player to find the endzone.
From what Smith said, it was actually Brown who has given him the most advice on being a dad. If nothing else, he suggested that Smith catch some Zs at every opportunity that he can.
“I got a lot of parenting tips from AJ,” said Smith. “(He said) get your sleep while you can.”
Smith’s daughter, Kyse, will be about a week old by the time that he takes the field again when Philadelphia plays the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football. That means he might be a tad tired for the second outing of the season depending on how the Smith’s first days as parents go.
Jalen Carter has impressive rookie debut for Eagles
Throughout the preseason, Jalen Carter has shown that he’s going to be a nightmare to block in the National Football League. On Sunday, in his rookie regular season debut vs. the New England Patriots, he continued to dominate.
He racked up six pressures and a sack on 32 pass rushes, per Next Gen Stats. He tied for the most pressures by any rookie defensive tackle in a game over the last five seasons.
Jalen Carter got even stronger throughout the course of training camp, if you can believe that. The Philadelphia Eagles’ No. 9 overall pick out of Georgia said that was his biggest improvement so far with the regular season around the corner.
Over the course of two preseason games, Carter played just two and seven snaps. The Eagles pretty much saw enough and “he’s ready,” to an extent.
If he shows those elite flashes consistently as a rookie, the Eagles could have yet another dominant defensive lineman as they work towards a Super Bowl title.
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