The 'Internal Beast' That Drives Eagles' Edge Rusher

PHILADELPHIA – The reigning Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles are a star-laden team, and one of their emerging difference-makers on defense shapes up to be one of the most important players this season.

Third-year edge rusher Nolan Smith is expected to be the centerpiece of the team’s pass rush off the edge after an offseason where proven veterans Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham were lost to the business of football, and the $51 million Bryce Huff experiment was given up on after just one disappointing campaign.

The uber-athletic Smith is now needed to build on a stretch run that included 7 sacks over his final 9 games, including 4 in the postseason run to the Super Bowl LIX championship.

However, Smith tore his triceps in the big game and was limited during spring work while wearing a brace on his left arm. He’s been a full go since training camp began earlier this week, to mixed reviews by the man himself.

“I just try to get better every day,” Smith said after practice Thursday. “I mean, I just get 1% better every day if I get 1% better every day, then I'm good. I did 1% today, I did minus 1% yesterday, so now I'm even."

Asked about the negative day on Wednesday, the first practice of camp, Smith pointed to the other side and All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson.

"I just felt like I had a bad day,” the Georgia product said. “It's days like that, especially when you going against an All-Pro tackle, you just got to keep your head down and work.

“And you got to keep stacking days. And [Thursday] wasn't even perfect for me neither, so I just got to keep going, keep my head down, and just keep working."

That work ethic was instilled at Georgia, where Smith was a two-time national champion with the Bulldogs.

“I'm still in Coach [Kirby] Smart’s words. Get bigger, faster, stronger every year,” Smith said. “I try to. I try to come in a little bit heavier. Obviously, I got to build my repertoire up for my arm and just keep working.”

Smith admitted to Eagles on SI that the rehab from the triceps surgery did impact his ability to follow Smart’s words and get bigger, faster, and stronger, at least in a linear fashion.

"Man, it's frustration, and it's not at nobody else other than myself, internal,” Smith explained. “It's an internal beast that I got to calm down because I got a standard for myself that I set.”

Smith’s standard is set by a greater power than Smart or Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, his mother Chakeima Bigham.

“I play this game with my mama, look at me at the end of the day,” Smith said. “Another man shouldn't keep his hands on me, another man shouldn't put me on the ground, and she gonna call me after every game and tell me that.

“‘Why you let that boy push you on the ground?’ I may have 15 sacks. She gonna call me and say, ‘Why you let that boy push you on the ground?’ I just hold myself to that standard."

MORE NFL: Eagles Working To Find A Backup Center