The Eagles have only played one game so far this season, but the plan for DeVonta Smith in 2024 is already taking shape.
He will play a lot in the slot.
That’s no surprise given Smith’s usage this summer. But in Smith’s first game in offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s offense, he played a career-high number of snaps in the slot.
What makes Smith so good internally?
“Yeah, I think he just does an outstanding job,” Moore said. “He’s got great spatial awareness, great feel for the game. I think when you’re playing inside as a receiver, there’s a lot more variables. There’s a nickelback on top of you, but there’s a safety, there’s the backers. You’ve got to have the awareness to see — have great spatial awareness to see all those aspects and see how those moving parts change the picture for you. So I thought he did an outstanding job a couple of times of finding space in the zone.
“He had the crucial 4th and 3, a big play where he saw a defender outside and a defender inside, he turned the ball over tight, finished it off, Jalen (Hurts) saw it. Those are big plays. It’s not easy to see spatially in such a short moment. He’s going to continue to play outside in different roles and situations, and we’re going to move those guys around. AJ (Brown) will be in there at times. That’s the beauty of what we have in the receiver group: Those guys can play anywhere on the field.”
Against the Packers, Smith played 76 total snaps on offense, and 41 of them (53.9%) came in the slot. Not only is that the most snaps he’s ever played inside in his career, but that percentage is also much higher than his career slot percentage.
Here’s a look at Smith’s slot snaps over the first three years of his career, according to ProFootballFocus:
2024: 41/76 (53.9%)
2023: 273/1,100 snapshots (24.8%)
2022: 270/1,288 snapshots (21.0%)
2021: 105/982 snapshots (10.7%)
“I think it just depends on the schedule, it depends on who we’re playing,” Smith said of the slot before Week 1. “Ultimately, it’s up to the coaches. We won’t know until the schedule comes out.”
Even before we saw the Eagles practice this summer, there was a theory that Smith would play a lot of interior in 2024. Aside from his clear ability to shine in the slot, Moore has deployed some of his best receivers there in the past.
Think back to CeeDee Lamb in Dallas and Keenan Allen with the Chargers, Moore got a lot of production out of his best receivers on the interior.
This will not change in 2024.
“I’m everywhere,” Smith said. “I don’t care.”
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