DeVonta Smith isn’t worried about his zero-reception stat line from Week 1
While the Eagles came away with a Week 1 victory in Detroit, there was an eye-opening stat on the final box score — DeVonta Smith failing to catch a single pass.
Several factors played into that statistic: new WR AJ Brown getting whatever he wanted on offense and Philadelphia accumulating 216 yards on the ground.
Nevertheless, the former Heisman winner is too good not to have a single touch throughout a game. Head coach Nick Sirianni was asked about Smitty’s involvement and explained his expectations moving forward:
“He’s gotta touch the ball. There’s no doubt about it, he’s gotta touch the ball,” Sirianni said. “It’s just the way the game went. He had the four targets but there was a handful of other things that were called for him. For whatever reason [the ball] didn’t get to him here and we had some other opportunities to get it to him. Him [DeVonta], AJ and Dallas are who the offense runs through.”
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Smith was asked — on three separate occasions — about his zero-catch performance prior to Thursday’s practice:
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Smith said with a smile.
“I can’t control if the ball’s coming to me or not, so you always have to do your job, always do the right thing and if it comes to you make a play. The plan was to go out there and execute our game plan. It just happened to be his [AJ Brown’s] day. Any day it can be anybody’s day — you never know whose day it’s going to be.”
Brown ended his Philly debut with ten catches on 13 targets for 155 yards — most by any player in an Eagles debut. Minnesota will emphasize containing Brown in their Week 2 matchup, which should allow Smith to expose certain mismatches.
“Today, it was my day,” Brown said. “Next week, it could be DeVonta’s day or Dallas’ day. We have a lot of skill players on offense, just trying to get them the ball, get everyone the ball, it’s probably really hard on [offensive coordinator Shane Steichen] because he’s trying to get everybody touches.”
Philadelphia is set to take on the Vikings Monday night at 8:30 PM EST on ESPN.
🎥 Every reception from AJ Brown's 10-catch, 155-yard Eagles debut. pic.twitter.com/Zjn0PqVb7a
— Victor Williams (@ThePhillyPod) September 11, 2022
Mandatory Credit: NBC Sports Philadelphia
