DeVonta Smith Talks Basketball, Jalen Hurts, and More
PHILADELPHIA – Like most professional football players, DeVonta Smith isn’t much different in that he played more than one sport in high school.
Some, like linemen, wrestled. Others, like running backs and receivers, ran track and field. The baseball bug bites a few, too.
Smith played basketball while growing up in Louisiana and attending Amite High School, about an hour from New Orleans. He played every opposition between the 1 and 4 spots.
“It wasn't a big team, so I had to be in the post, so it was all about getting physical,” said Smith shortly after the Eagles traded up to the No. 10 spot in the first round of Thursday night’s draft to select him.
Smith learned his lessons well and translated them to the football field, where, even at 6-0, 166 pounds, he can be physical with cornerbacks trying to defend him.
“Just that mentality, that grit mentality just to go in there just to bang, to be scrappy, that carried over to football,” he said. “And then just going up to get rebounds, that's attacking the ball at the highest point. That helped me out. Footwork, that kind of helped me out, too. Just really the main thing about basketball was just the mentality I had.”
It wasn’t long after Smith was picked by the Eagles that he and Jalen Hurts were in touch.
The QB and WR were teammates for a year at Alabama, but Smith knows Hurts well.
“Jalen, that's my guy,” he said. “Been with him in my time at Alabama. Even when I was a recruit, he was the guy trying to get me to come to Alabama. That's my guy. I have a great relationship and I'm ready to work.”
Hurts isn’t the only NFL-ready Alabama player Smith played with. Just look at the receiving group the Tide program has produced in the past two years alone.
Last year, it was Henry Ruggs and Jerry Jeudy. This year, it was Jaylen Waddle, who went No. 6 to the Dolphins.
Smith and Waddle are the sixth pair of wide receiver teammates to be drafted in the first round of the same NFL Draft since 1967, and the first pair to both be chosen in the top-10.
Asked what it was like to play with that kind of talent, Smith said: “At practice and things you see those guys working hard and you see the things they do, and it just makes you want to get better and do better.
“You see somebody go out there and make a one-handed catch, you're like, Now I got to go out here and do something spectacular. You see those guys catch a slant, take it to the house, now you want to go do that.
“I mean, just seeing those guys be successful made you want to be successful and just made you want to work harder. Knowing that they're working hard, and they have your back, you just want to do the same and return the favor to them.”
Already, Sportsbetting.ag has Smith as one of the top-10 favorites to be named NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Here are the odds from https://www.sportsbetting.ag/sportsbook/futures-and-props/nfl-player-futures:
Trevor Lawrence 3/1
Justin Fields 11/2
Trey Lance 11/2
Mac Jones 7/1
Zach Wilson 7/1
Ja'Marr Chase 10/1
Kyle Pitts 11/1
Jaylen Waddle 14/1
Najee Harris 14/1
DeVonta Smith 18/1
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
