Eagles Rising Star Has Eyes On 8-Time Pro Bowler

The Philadelphia Eagles' defense is loaded with exciting, young talent.

Philadelphia has built the majority of its defense through the NFL Draft and one guy who took his game to another level in 2024 under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was linebacker Nolan Smith.

As a rookie in 2023, he was more of a role player. He saw time in all 17 regular season games, but didn't start a game and finished the campaign with one sack and 18 total tackles. He was a completely different player in 2024 and had 6 1/2 sacks and 42 total tackles in 16 games played, including 10 starts. He also had 11 quarterback hits.

Now, he's 24 years old and likely going to have an even larger role in 2025 with all of the losses of the offseason. He opened up about wanting to model his game after eight-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro Von Miller.

"Watching Von Miller in (Fangio's) defense made me want to be the person I am today," Smith said. "Relentless. Like, who is that guy? What does he do during the offseason? Why is he always at the ball? ...Coach Fangio, watching him and how he molded those guys, it's nothing for me to listen to him. To be coachable? Are you crazy?"

Smith suffered torn triceps in the Super Bowl and he underwent surgery afterward. This will be something to monitor throughout the rest of the offseason, but he should have a good year ahead.