From Bulldog To Eagle

Meet Nolan Smith

As a rookie linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, Nolan Smith quickly racked up some memorable moments. He saw action in all 17 games of his first season, recording 13 tackles with five pressures. He got his first NFL sack against the Miami Dolphins last October. Before that, he was a two-time College Football National Champion at the University of Georgia (UGA).

But for Smith, some of the best memories happened many years ago on Savannah grass.

“Daffin Park is where I had some of my biggest plays and biggest hits,” he says. “I love Daffin. Someday, when I can barely walk, I want to go watch a game at Daffin and see how the boys are still out there doing their thing, working to become Savannah’s next great player.”

Looking Up

Growing up in Savannah, Smith spent most fall days on the field at Daffin and many others across Chatham County. In the summer, he attended football camps, including one hosted by Adrian Peterson, the Georgia Southern running back who went on the play for the Chicago Bears.

“I remember going to camps, looking up to the players, being like ‘Man, I wish I could do something like that myself,’” he recalls.

As a high school freshman and sophomore, Smith played football for Calvary Day School and became a standout player. He transferred to IMG Academy in Florida, where he became a five-star recruit in 2019.

His star rose even further as a Georgia Bulldog, when he made 114 tackles over 46 games. Fifty-six of those tackles happened in 2021, when the Bulldogs won the National Championship for the first of two years in a row.

Smith was projected to be a second-day draft pick as a junior at UGA, but he returned for his senior year, saying, “If I don’t get a diploma, my mom couldn’t care less about the NFL draft.”

In 2023, the Bulldog became an Eagle—he was the 30th pick in the first round of the NFL draft. At 6-foot-2 and weighing more than 230 pounds, Smith was actually considered by some fans and commentators to be undersized for his position as outside linebacker. But he was undeterred.

“Only God can judge me,” he says. “As long as He is on my side and I’m able to work and I got breath in my lungs, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

Y’all Are The Future

Though it’s still early in Smith’s career, he has already found ways to give back, both to his adopted home of Philadelphia and his hometown. Since creating the Nolan Smith Foundation, he has hosted golf tournaments, food drives for Thanksgiving and bicycle drives for Christmas. This past summer he held the fourth Pups Day Out football camp in Savannah, a free, one-day youth camp that he began when he was still a Bulldog. Smith designs the day to be a tough but inspirational experience for the next generation of Savannah football players.

“The drills I have the campers go through are the same ones I did at UGA,” Smith says. “I push them because when they go to the next level, it’s not going to be easy.”

But one of Smith’s biggest messages to young people is about something that happens off the field. He believes that too much time spent on screens and social media is an impediment to physical and mental health.

“All of it—Instagram, TikTok, iPads, video games, it’s all just a distraction,” he says. 

Smith notes the irony of being a character in the latest Madden NFL video game, when he stopped playing games like Madden years ago to avoid losing his focus on his dreams.

“I want kids to know that nothing in life is given, everything is worked for,” he says. “I tell them, ‘Y’all are the future.’ Because once you think that, it becomes part of your mentality, and then you will work every day.”

Pure Joy

A recent visit to UGA demonstrated to Smith that his message is being heard.

“There was a player who came to my camp a few years ago,” Smith recalls. “I was visiting my coaches, and I saw that same kid there sitting at a table with Coach [Kirby] Smart. Then Coach Smart says to me, ‘I got another one from Savannah.’”

For Smith, that feeling of helping others is as gratifying as his best plays as a Bulldog and now as an Eagle.

“It’s pure joy,” he says. “That’s different from happiness. I was happy when I won the ‘natty,’ but the feeling went away. That’s why I wanted to win another one. But seeing this player, the look in his eyes about his opportunities, I couldn’t be more joyful.”

Top photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles

Middle photo courtesy of Tony Walsh/UGAAA