Eagles Today

Eagles' Young Defensive Star Suffered Torn Triceps In Super Bowl

Nolan Smith underwent surgery for a torn triceps suffered in the Super Bowl.
John McMullen|
Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. (3) makes a tackle on Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second quarter in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome.
Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. (3) makes a tackle on Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second quarter in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Philadelphia Eagles

PHILADELPHIA - Eagles' emerging young edge rusher Nolan Smith suffered a torn triceps in Philadelphia's 40-22 Super Bowl LIX win over Kansas City.

The star pass rusher suffered the injury in the second quarter of the game and played through it the rest of the way, albeit in a limited fashion. Ultimately Smith played only 30 of the Eagles' 56 defensive snaps in the game.

He was a big part of Philadelphia's dominance in the first half, however. The Eagles built a 24-0 lead by halftime and allowed the Chiefs only 23 total yards over the first 30 minutes. The four-man pass rush was relentless and Smith was a part of that with two quarterback hits.

After playing a limited role in his rookie season as the 30th overall pick out of Georgia in 2023, Smith broke out in the second half of the 2024 season, ironically garnering playing time due to a torn triceps suffered by veteran Brandon Graham.

From the Dec. 1 game at Baltimore, the week after Graham was injured, up until the Super Bowl, Smith never played less than 40 snaps in the eight games he played (he and the rest of the starters rested in Week 18), topping six times with a career-high 63 snaps in the NFC Championship Game against Washington.

Smith was also productive, recording 7.0 sacks over that span. Overall, Smith started 10 of 16 regular season games and all four postseason games for the Eagles in his second season, dumping the quarterback 10.5 times (6.5 in the regular season and 4.0 more in the playoffs).

“Nolan deeply cares about being good at football," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said during the season. "Nolan loves football. Nolan is as tough as we’ve got. One of the toughest guys we’ve got on this football team. He plays as hard as anybody in the National Football League.”

Smith underwent surgery for the injury on Wednesday of this week, according to NFL Media, and is expected to be ready for the start of the 2025 season.

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John McMullen
JOHN MCMULLEN

John McMullen is a veteran reporter who has covered the NFL for over two decades. The current NFL insider for JAKIB Media, John is the former NFL Editor for The Sports Network where his syndicated column was featured in over 200 outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Miami Herald. He was also the national NFL columnist for Today's Pigskin as well as FanRag Sports. McMullen has covered the Eagles on a daily basis since 2016, first for ESPN South Jersey and now for Eagles Today on SI.com's FanNation. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey and part of 6ABC.com's live postgame show after every Eagles game. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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