While one Eagles WR sends cryptic messages, DeVonta Smith just catches the football – at a higher rate than usual

Jalen Hurts is all of us. He sees DeVonta Smith every day. He watches the electric wide receiver go up to grab 50-50 balls, take punishing hits across the middle and at the sideline, land awkwardly on his head, neck or back, and then get right up.

He watches Smith absorb contact time and time again yet still run crisp routes, accelerate after the catch and light up the scoreboard like the fifth-year receiver did Sunday en route to a career-best 183 receiving yards against the Vikings.

Hurts sees it and wonders how the 6-foot, 170-pound wideout – listed size, anyway – can be so physically dominant in a league full of rocked-up, twitched-up, world-class athletes.

He's seen it going back to their days playing together at Alabama. He still marvels at it, and the impact it has on the entire offense.

"I don't think it's something that maybe is voiced enough, but everybody sees it," Hurts said Wednesday at his press conference at the NovaCare Complex. "Everybody feels it. It definitely oozes through the team. He's been that size his whole entire career, his whole life."

But Hurts doesn't wonder about it like he once did. He gave that up a long time ago.

"I remember times asking him, 'Hey, how much you weigh? You gaining weight?'" Hurts recalled. "I stopped asking him that as the years have gone on because that's no indication of what type of player he is. He's a hell of a player, and he's been making some big-time plays."

The Eagles' pass offense has struggled for most of the season, enough that the team's other star receiver, A.J. Brown, has again expressed his dissatisfaction, enough that Hurts, Brown and Saquon Barkley needed a gathering after a Thursday night loss to the Giants this month, and enough that even after Sunday's breakout against the Vikings, Brown still went to social media to send some cryptic message about his usage despite his 121 yards and two touchdowns.

Ironically, Smith is in the middle of his best season, with his per-game average in almost every category going above his career average:

Smith is on pace for close to 1,300 yards, which would be the most of his career. The 2020 Heisman Trophy winner is ninth in the NFL in receiving yards and 11th in receptions despite sharing targets with Brown and tight end Dallas Goedert. Advanced analytics show that Smith is among the NFL's most productive receivers, despite the Eagles having the NFL's seventh-fewest pass attempts. Smith's receiving EPA (+37.5) is fourth in the NFL, and his catch rate over expectation (+18.9) is third.

"He's a dynamic player, right?" offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said Tuesday in his presser. "He's a Heisman Trophy winner. He is one of the best players in the league still, obviously. We're going to use him in any capacity we can, and his energy is just infectious at all times."

For sure, Smith is the team's spark plug. He broke open Sunday's win over the Vikings with a 79-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter on a Hurts play-action pass from under center that Smith had told the coaches prior to the play was there for the taking.

"Smitty does a great job of communicating what he's seeing out there," head coach Nick Sirianni said Monday. "He's got great football instincts and football IQ, so he gives you that confidence to be able to call things in those scenarios when he sees something. It’s just like having another set of eyes from coaches out there on the field."

The touchdown put the Eagles up 12, but the Vikings didn't go away, and it took several more big conversions, from both Smith and Brown, to stave off Carson Wentz's attempted comeback.

The Eagles only led 21-16 when Smith came up with a 19-yard catch, which not only moved the chains into Vikings territory but also demonstrated his unique ability to take crushing hits, land hard, and still hang onto the ball.

On another under-center play action, Hurts delivered a strike to Smith at the left seam on a deep over that needed Smith to extend both arms up as veteran Vikings safety Harrison Smith rotated over.

Harrison Smith drilled DeVonta Smith in the chest as Smith was reaching up, causing the receiver to land oddly on his right leg while his left leg was still airborne, then come crashing down on his rear end as his body rolled on the turf.

And then Smith just popped right back up.

"DeVonta is so tough, and he knows that," Sirianni said after the game. "We talk a lot about – and I know he talked a lot about this in college – about finishing runs and finding ways to get ugly yards after the catch. He’s going to go look for those ugly runs and extra yards because of just his makeup, who he is and the toughness that he has.

"I remember the Super Bowl in ‘22, our first third down, he catches a little shallow route and [then-Chiefs safety Justin] Reed comes over and just smokes him on the sideline and he hit him good. I don't know if you remember, his feet were up over his head and Smitty just gets up fast. I think about that. There was also the game in ‘22 against the Cardinals where someone came over and just drilled him on a wide receiver screen and he pops up."

• MORE EAGLES
• Eagles-Giants Week 8 injury report, with analysis
• Eagles LB Nakobe Dean found a role vs. Vikings, but what will it be going forward?
• Eagles-Giants Week 8 odds preview: The Kelly Greens are back and so is Brandon Graham, are the Birds, too?

These are both gifts and curses, Siranni explained.

"Sometimes you don't want him to take those hits, there's a time to go out of bounds, but he is always looking for the grimy, gritty yards," Sirianni said. "You try to show your physicality and your toughness many different ways, and I think there brings a lot of energy to guys when you see Smitty lower his shoulder and get those extra yards.

"I think about ‘23, we threw a little screen to him in ‘23 on 3rd-and-14 in the San Francisco game and he broke through three tackles and got a first down in it. We were struggling a little bit at the time, and it brought life. We didn't win that game, but it brought life to everybody. I think that that's what a big play can do, that's what a great assist from a teammate can do, and that's what great toughness shown on tape can do, because those are the things we talk about all the time is, [they] can just bring that energy to a football team."

SIGN UP HERE to receive PhillyVoice's Sports newsletters.

Follow Geoff on Twitter/X: @geoffpmosher

Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports