For 15 seasons, the man who occupied the stall in the middle of the NovaCare Complex locker room was as permanent a fixture as the stall itself. Brandon Graham, the stall’s longtime resident, retired in March, taking the infectious energy that permeated the space with him.
Last week, the stall gained a new tenant who “brings that BG energy,” according to 24-year-old outside linebacker Nolan Smith. Ten-year NFL veteran edge rusher Za’Darius Smith signed a one-year deal with the Eagles the day after their season-opening victory against the Dallas Cowboys, then moved into the locker once occupied by Graham.
To the left of the 33-year-old Smith sits Ogbo Okoronkwo, his former teammate of two years with the Cleveland Browns. Otherwise, Smith is mostly surrounded by the young, promising faces on the defensive line, with Moro Ojomo to his right and Jordan Davis and Nolan Smith two and three spots down from his left.
His placement isn’t a coincidence. In fact, before Smith signed with the Eagles on Sept. 5, he said the front office had a discussion with him about stepping into a Graham-esque role among a young edge rushers corps headlined by the likes of the younger Smith and Jalyx Hunt. Of course, on top of that, the 6-foot-4, 270-pound Smith is tasked with jumping in and contributing to a pass rush in transition that saw Graham retire and Josh Sweat depart in free agency in the offseason.
“It’s a lot, but I can handle it,” Smith told The Inquirer. “It’s a small thing to a giant.”
It seemed like a small thing to Smith on Sunday night. The three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher, coming off of a nine-sack season with the Browns and the Detroit Lions, made an immediate impact in his Eagles debut against the Kansas City Chiefs. He notched a half sack on Patrick Mahomes and contributed three run stops, including tackles for losses of one and two yards and one for no gain.
Anyone can see the fruits of Smith’s on-field presence last week in the boxscore. Behind the scenes, though, Smith is already making an off-field impact through his newfound leadership role, according to his teammates on the youngest defense in the league by snap-weighted age.
“We all know BG is sorely missed,” Davis said. “But at the end of the day, just to have veteran leadership and just veteran eyes, ‘cause everybody in that room is young. Nobody is over Year 6, maybe. So anybody that’s in that room and just has a little bit more guidance, we can all learn from that, even from the DTs. Even from the linebackers. Even from the DBs.
“Any time we have an older guy and they tell us the experience that they have and even just bringing that experience and that culture and that drive and that motivation that they have, just to be a part of something greater than themselves, it’s amazing.”
‘He is the definition of culture’
Smith is used to being the new guy, but that hasn’t prevented him from becoming a leader. The Eagles are his sixth stop on a journey that began with the Baltimore Ravens, the team that drafted him in the fourth round of the 2015 draft out of Kentucky.
He was rewarded for his 8½-sack season in the final year of rookie deal in Baltimore with a four-year, $66 million contract with the Green Bay Packers in 2019. At the time, the Packers were in a period of transition under new head coach Matt LaFleur, who was tasked with turning around a team that hadn’t made the playoffs for two consecutive years for the first time since 2005-06. Smith was one of the marquee free-agent defensive signings, in addition to outside linebacker Preston Smith and safety Adrian Amos.
Smith’s energy immediately made an impact on the team, according to former Packers defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster. The 2018 undrafted free agent out of Northwestern recalled early mornings three weeks into training camp — the dog days of the summer — in which Smith would parade through the locker room, yelling, “Time to play some football!” to galvanize his tired teammates.
“He knew how to connect with the guys pretty naturally right away,” Lancaster said. “Some of that is taking a leap of faith and just being loud and being proud and knowing who you are and really putting it out there. But Z, he’s got it naturally. He shows up, and me, personally, I’m kind of the antithesis of that, where I’m shy and I’ve really got to hype myself up to be as sociable. So he was able to pull that not only out of a lot of the other guys, but out of me as well.”
» READ MORE: Eagles remain ‘optimistic’ about passing game after slow start for A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith
Smith went out of his way to connect with everyone, according to Lancaster, not just the Aaron Rodgerses of the team. Going into his second season in the NFL, Lancaster said he was still finding his footing in the league and fighting for his job as an undrafted free agent. While Lancaster was laser-focused on the task at hand, Smith helped him see the bigger picture.
After Lancaster had a six-tackle game in Week 3 against the Denver Broncos, Smith popped his head in the defensive line room that week to tell him what a great job he did and if he kept it up, there were good things ahead for the defense. Five weeks later, Lancaster forced a fumble in the Packers’ win against the Chiefs, a play that earned a shout-out from Smith in his postgame remarks to the media.
“In my head, I’m like, ‘I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got a job to do,’” Lancaster said. “But he’s like, ‘No, this is fun. You just did something really cool. I’m going to hype you up for it.’ So it kind of got me out of my own shell to be more excited about the game. To love the game more.”
That leadership role didn’t end in Green Bay. After a yearlong stint with the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, Smith was traded to the Cleveland Browns in the offseason. Former Browns and Eagles safety Rodney McLeod was already familiar with Smith’s game when he was acquired, but he didn’t know the person behind the helmet.
Right away, McLeod said Smith brought his “contagious” energy to his “glue guy” role among his teammates. During training camp in 2023, Smith suggested that the defense display their turnover balls in a dog cage, a tradition he wanted to carry over from his early years in Baltimore that he’d brought along to each of his NFL stops.
McLeod said the cage, which was kept in the defensive meeting room, became part of the identity of a defense that ranked No. 5 in the league in turnovers created that season. Even in those early days, Smith quickly gained the respect of the locker room through his track record on the field and his authenticity off of it, according to McLeod.
“When you have guys of his caliber, I think the one thing you always are mindful of is is he going to be a good fit for the locker room, the culture?” McLeod said. “And he is the definition of culture, in my opinion.”
McLeod played with Smith for two seasons and Graham for six. Based on his experiences with both players, McLeod surmised that while the Eagles lost their “big bro” mentor in Graham, they gained another in Smith.
“They’re for the better good, and not necessarily [selfish] players,” McLeod said. “They’re going to do whatever’s asked of them for the benefit of the team. That is invaluable, when you have a guy who has so much experience in the league and for him not to withhold that information but share it, there’s great power in that and the reward is you have young players like Nolan and Hunt who are going to benefit greatly from it.”
Sharing ‘gems’ with the Eagles’ defensive front
For a moment on Sunday, Patrick Johnson saw flashes of No. 55 in No. 52.
Johnson, the 27-year-old edge rusher and core special-teamer, watched from the sideline as Smith tackled Chiefs running back Isaiah Pacheco for a loss of a yard in the first quarter. Smith popped up and celebrated his first play as an Eagle with an incomplete pass signal. Johnson turned to his position coach, Jeremiah Washburn, and remarked that Smith’s act reminded him of something Graham would do.
“Just kind of that energy,” Johnson said. “You don’t see that all the time.”
But it isn’t just Smith’s “energizer bunny” persona that reminds Johnson of Graham. In just two weeks time, Johnson has already watched Smith become a resource for the rest of the group, leaning on his experience and understanding of what it takes to win at the NFL level as he steps into a new leadership role.
In other words, according to Hunt, Smith is the new “old head” of the edge rushers corps.
“He hates being called an old head, but he’s an old head,” Hunt said with a smile. “So he just gives advice about everything, ‘cause he’s seen it. Dang near all of it.”
Even though Smith has been in the league for 10 years, he isn’t “arrogant” about it, according to Hunt. He doesn’t gatekeep information. Rather, Hunt said he’s open to answering any question, especially as it relates to different pass-rush moves.
Hunt didn’t know much about Smith before he arrived in Philadelphia — other than “he was good and that he was on Detroit” — but he already sees traits that he wants to emulate in the elder edge rusher with 69½ career sacks.
“His ability to just throw a rush and [make] it work, just ‘cause he’s so honed in at it,” Hunt said. “He knows his steps. He knows how he wants to throw it. And he can set himself up in any scenario. Just do it and execute it well. So that’s definitely something I want to pick up.”
His expertise isn’t limited to the edge defenders. Davis said that Smith had already helped him “tweak” his own game as a defensive tackle, especially as it relates to his technique.
“He’s just helped me, like, ‘Hey, if they’re going to jump set you, you need to back up a little bit,’” Davis said. “He’s seen a lot of players. He understands a lot of players and … their play style, and how they affect him and how his play style affects us. So his communication is A1, off the charts. Sometimes, all we do is just sit there and talk about what we’ve got going on in pass rushing or run blocking, calls that we need to make. Anything that he gives us is just gems.”
Has Hunt learned anything else from Smith?
“Got to have a celebration or it’s a fine,” Hunt said.
» READ MORE: Chris Jones got it backward. Winning ugly is what makes the Eagles great.
Hunt laughed, but he wasn’t kidding. Smith said he announced in the defensive meeting on Wednesday that he’d fine players for not celebrating after their sacks this season. He started the team out strong against the Chiefs, performing his signature army-crawl celebration after splitting a sack on Mahomes with rookie safety Drew Mukuba.
“I’m so big on celebrations,” Smith said. “It’s hard to get sacks in this league. When you get them, that’s your time.”
It’s just another way Smith is trying to uplift the Eagles defense. But sacks will have to wait until Sunday. For now, Smith is focused on getting up to speed on the rest of the defensive playbook as the team prepares to face the Los Angeles Rams. He only learned a portion of it for the Chiefs game.
Smith is living in a hotel, away from his children in Orlando, as he gets acclimated to his new job. Still, as he settles into big proverbial shoes and a prominent locker stall at the practice facility, Philadelphia is already starting to feel like home to Smith.
“I think I talk to the GM soon,” Smith said. “Hopefully he’ll say, ‘You might be around for a long time.’ Probably need to find a house here soon.”