WATCH: Nolan Smith takes jab at Florida Gators in Eagles draft call
Nolan Smith is about as Georgia as they come, and he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity for a jab at arch-rival Florida – even in on the biggest night of his life. When Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, a Florida graduate, called Smith to make him the No. 30 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Smith made sure to remind him who runs the rivalry.
“I’m a Florida Gator, you know how much this hurts my soul to take all these (expletive) Georgia Bulldogs,” Roseman joked over the phone with Smith. “You know?”
“You want to win, though, you want to win,” Smith told him, to which Roseman responded, “I do want to win. I do want to win, my man, you’re right. I do want to win more than you know.”
Coincidentally, Smith had one of the best games of his career against Roseman’s Gators in 2021. With a forced fumble and recovery of it, plus an interception just one series later, against Anthony Richardson – who was taken No. 4 overall by the Indianapolis Colts – Smith earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors. This past season against Florida, Smith had a tackle for loss before suffering a shoulder injury that sent him to the sideline. The diagnosis was a torn pectoral muscle that ended his season, but not without a win over the Gators – Georgia’s second straight in the rivalry and third in Smith’s four years.
Smith was projected by many to go in the top-10 of the draft, possibly even to the Eagles at No. 10 in their original draft position. However, with how things played out, he was still available towards the end of the first round, and Philadelphia made sure they didn’t pass on him twice.
“Yeah, I think that’s one of the things in the draft that, I think you’ve got to be flexible. You go into the draft and say, ‘Hey, here are a couple of names at 30,’ and then you see guys sitting up there like Nolan,” Roseman said. “An incredible person. Obviously got unbelievable traits in his body, a leader, and a winner. For us, we’re fielding calls at that time, and I think Coach and I kind of just looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, this is the guy,’ We didn’t want to get too cute, and we’re excited to add him.”
Smith joins fellow Georgia Bulldog Jalen Carter as a part of the Eagles’ 2023 draft class. Philadelphia traded up one spot to No. 9 to take Carter, pairing him with last year’s first round pick Jordan Davis as well as third-round selection Nakobe Dean on the defensive side of the ball in the City of Brotherly Love.
ESPN’s Lewis Riddick was a big fan of the strategy for the Eagles, getting all the Georgia players back together after they helped led the Bulldogs to their first National Championship in over four decades in 2021. Some even joked that they ought to put hedges up at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
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“There’s no doubt, Coach and I both talk to guys,” Roseman said when asked whether he spoke with Davis and Dean about the potential picks of Carter and Smith. “We kind of have an atmosphere around here where a bunch of our guys are trying to recruit us to draft players from their colleges. So guys from Georgia want Georgia guys, guys from Alabama want Alabama guys and we clearly don’t have enough Florida guys … We didn’t do it any less for Nolan Smith with Jordan and Nakobe. We didn’t do that any less with guys who played at different schools on different guys.”
“We’re always asking our guys, ‘Hey what do you think about this guy? You played with him. Would he be a good fit here?’ We also understand, you know, I’m not going to say bad things about my friends if you asked me, ‘Should I hire one of your friends?’ We understand that.”
