Adrian Fedkiw
Marcus Smith saw the writing on the wall and instead of scratching, clawing and fighting for his job, he did the most un-Philadelphia thing you can do.
He quit!
The Eagles signed defensive end Chris Long earlier this offseason and drafted Derek Barnett with the 14th overall pick. With Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry already on the roster, Smith’s best potential role with the team would’ve been as a fifth defensive end and mostly playing special teams. So the 2014 first-round pick decided not to attend voluntary OTAs, and while they are considered optional, it’s mandatory in my opinion for players that are on the roster bubble.
Here was his explanation as to why he didn’t attend.
There wasn’t a reason. It was voluntary, and I just stayed at home and trained … I think the benefit is just being by yourself training, being with a coach and getting one-on-one training. I did want to be here, as far as being with my teammates, I just decided to stay home. It was just a decision that I made not regarding to the coaches, not regarding to the GM or my teammates. It was just my decision.
Being with your teammates is always better than being by yourself Marcus, just ask Nnamdi Asomugha.
The ploy ultimately was for Smith to get cut and hope that he could get a job elsewhere, but that wouldn’t sit well with me if I was a head coach of another team. As a coach, if I see a player that doesn’t want to come to OTAs and fight for their job, I wouldn’t want him on my team. He’s basically admitting that he doesn’t believe in himself and his abilities. By no-showing, he admitted that the other players are better than him.
Instead of hitting the gym hard all offseason and getting in the best shape of your life in an attempt to impress your coaches and potentially change their minds about your future, Smith did the opposite.
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson didn’t even mention that Smith wasn’t at OTAs during his press conference before the first practice. He reported that Fletcher Cox, Jason Peters and Donnie Jones weren’t there, but nothing about Smith. It took the reporters hours until they finally noticed Smith was missing.
Smith played 220 of his 413 snaps last year and recorded 2 1/2 of his four career sacks. He was used as a 3-4 outside linebacker during Chip Kelly’s tenure, but as a 4-3 defensive end under Jim Schwartz, Smith was excited to play under him last summer and even said his confidence was so high in the scheme that he felt like he couldn’t be stopped. This was a quote from August.
I feel really comfortable. This is a scheme in the type of defense that we’re playing that it allows me to just go be a defensive end and go make plays. My confidence level is really high. I feel like when I’m out on the field that I can’t be stopped. Me playing in this defense, with these guys, I feel like I can go out there to make plays and just be myself.
So much for that. On Wednesday, it was the Eagles who put a stop to everything.
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