DeVonta Smith introduced himself with a touchdown catch in the front corner of the southwest end zone in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It was the 2018 National Championship Game, and Smith’s only catch of the game was a walk-off 41-yarder that cemented Alabama’s 17th national championship, the program’s fifth under Nick Saban. Jalen Hurts, having been benched at halftime, watched the game-winning pass sail toward Smith from the sideline before running onto the field to celebrate.
Four seasons later, Smith introduced himself again. His first catch as a pro came in almost the exact same spot on the same field as his most famous reception. This time, instead of finishing a season, Smith’s touchdown was the first for a new era of Eagles football. And this time, Hurts got to throw the pass.
From 2007, when Saban returned to college to lead Alabama, through 2019, the Eagles were one of only two teams in the NFL that did not draft a single Alabama player. Now, as the Eagles begin the process of rebuilding a program of their own, the three players who stand to inherit leadership roles on the roster for years to come could accurately be described as the three players in recent history who best embody the values of Saban’s program.
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The quarterback who stuck around after losing his job and nearly made Saban cry on national TV. The undersized receiver who reset the record book. The offensive line transfer who won everyone over and convinced Saban to bend the rules. In Hurts, Smith and Landon Dickerson, the Eagles hope they have the group that will lead them into the future.
The Eagles did not exactly ignore Alabama entirely until recently. The staff is littered with Alabama connections, from offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland to assistant special-teams coordinator Joe Pannunzio, who spent five seasons with Saban in a variety of roles. They’ve signed undrafted players from Alabama in the past. But in selecting Smith and Dickerson as the first two building blocks for Nick Sirianni, the Eagles made a conscious effort to give Sirianni players who they hope will excel on the field and be counted on to both lead and follow. But how do you separate their work habits from the standards set within the program?
“The easiest way to answer that question is they embodied it,” said Sam Petitto, Alabama’s director of personnel operations. “Nick Saban sets the standard, right? That’s obvious. He sets the culture, the bedrocks, the values, the structures, the discipline. All those things that he believes in and breeds, OK? And you either buy into it or you don’t. Then the really, really special ones not only buy into it, such as DeVonta and Landon, they become ambassadors of it. They say, we got you, Nick. We’re gonna go out there and reinforce your mission statement as peers.
“You know the cliche ‘Cream rises to the top,’ right? It was really easy in our building to see that DeVonta Smith was French vanilla and Landon Dickerson was hazelnut. When you poured that cream into the coffee, brother, they rose quick.”
Petitto had an up-close view of Smith and Dickerson’s time in Tuscaloosa. But his connection to Smith goes back much further. A native of Amite, La., like Smith, Petitto has long been close with Smith’s family. He knew “Tay Tay” when he was a kid, skinny then as he is now, and has seen Smith’s progression along the way.
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“There’s nothing half-ass about him,” Petitto said. “He takes no shortcuts, he cuts no corners, he puts in the desired work to be successful and great. … He wants to earn everything that comes his way. And that’s infectious. That translates to and transcends to teammates, not just his position but on both sides of the ball. He had such a voice and a presence on our team just because of what he modeled and what he showed. So it affected the receiver room, it affected the offense, but it also affected the defense. That was really very refreshing to see.”
Structurally, there’s something of a missing generation on the Eagles roster. There are veteran stalwarts on both sides of the ball and there are young players the team hopes will ascend. But there are only two homegrown starters on the team between the ages of 26 and 29 (Dallas Goedert and Isaac Seumalo). So when mainstays like Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham eventually move on, the leadership void will necessarily be filled by younger players than might otherwise be expected.
In his first game, Smith was as advertised. His six catches for 71 yards led the team and accounted for the best debut by a rookie Eagles receiver since DeSean Jackson in 2008. More than that, Smith did the kind of wise-beyond-his-years little things someone praised for his football IQ and maturity would do. Like when he alerted Hurts mid-play to a cornerback blitz or when he helped spring his teammates with the blocking acumen of someone with a torso twice as big. Yet, perhaps the most memorable thing he did was show off his dance moves in the postgame locker room celebration.
— Sam Naranjo (@Samnaranjo21) September 15, 2021
Those moves caught some by surprise because of Smith’s quiet personality. While Hurts chooses his words carefully in front of the camera, Smith is simply a man of few words. He told reporters this week that he hasn’t had a chance to get to know Philadelphia because he rarely ever leaves his house or the facility. He celebrated his first NFL game by playing “NBA2K.”
“I don’t like being around a lot of people,” he said. “I don’t like going out. I just kind of (keep) to myself, sit inside, watch film, play the game, sleep. That’s about all I do.”
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Do not let the “silent assassin” fool you. In his own understated way, “Smitty” is a no background player. In fact, he was the first player since 2011 to be named an Alabama team captain twice. On a team with fellow first-round receivers Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and Jaylen Waddle, Smith was the one who set an example.
“Separating himself in a place that has a ton of alphas,” said Maryland head coach Mike Locksley, who worked with the Alabama wide receivers from 2016 to 2018, “I think the respect grows by how you practice, how you play the game, how he kept his mouth shut. You didn’t hear a lot of bitching, complaining or excuses from Smitty. He just went out and did his job, did it at a high level, and people took notice.”
At Alabama, Smith’s accolades leave behind a significant imprint. As a senior in 2020, he won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Biletnikoff Award and the Paul Hornung Award. His 1,856 receiving yards set a school and SEC record. And, of course, he won a second National Championship. Those close to the program, though, speak most glowingly about his work ethic. Take Hurts, for example.
“I look at the late nights we had in college where we had nothing else to do, we’d go throw,” Hurts said. “Or when I hosted him on his recruiting visit to come to Alabama, usually you want to go on the strip — the main college street in Tuscaloosa — find something to get into, a party or something like that. Well, his head wasn’t on that. He was trying to work. We were in the indoor (facility) late at night getting work in. So I think that shows the mentality he has and I think he’s bringing all of that with him here.”
“When you have a guy with this kind of character and this kind of physical ability, he’s a person you want to bet on,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said after Smith was drafted. “Especially as we start this program, we thought he was special enough.”
In the 2021 national championship game, Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith roasted Ohio State to the tune of 12 receptions for 215 yards and three touchdowns. (Kyle Robertson / USA Today)First name, last initial aside, Saban and Sirianni do not exactly seem like similar coaches. On one hand, there’s the cantankerous legend famous for his heavy hand of control in every aspect of the program. On the other, the fresh-faced coach with the boundless energy of a golden retriever who is most famous for his “Rock, Paper, Scissors” theory of scouting. Underneath the surface, though, there’s connective tissue.
“I remember back in my days at Alabama, Coach Saban, hearing him talk about discipline, commitment, effort, toughness and pride,” Hurts said last spring. “These core values that he was trying to instill in the team. … And you see coach Sirianni preaching connection, preaching accountability and competition and fundamentals and football IQ. Preaching all these things. I know in all of those different avenues and all those different values and principles that we’re trying to instill here in Philly, no one is above that. And everybody’s gotta go to work. For me, rent is due every day. It’s always been that way for me.”
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“Just the details of everything,” Smith said this week. “Being committed. Every little small detail, the right way to do things. That’s what the same about them. The commitment about everything, going about things the right way.”
In borrowing from Alabama to set the tone for their new program, Roseman and the Eagles doubled down. If Smith reflects Sirianni’s emphasis on football IQ and fundamentals and Hurts is the embodiment of competition and accountability, Dickerson is the face of “connection.” Described by Texas offensive coordinator Kyle Flood, his former position coach at Alabama, as having “a little bit of a baseball player in the dugout mentality,” Dickerson is all about forming connections with his teammates. As a senior, Dickerson was named a captain alongside Smith in only his second year with the program after transferring in from Florida State. He was also named the team’s most inspiring player.
“For Landon to do that in two years is special,” Flood said. “I don’t think you can understate how unique that is.”
Unlike Smith and Hurts, Dickerson is as outgoing as it gets. Sometimes that means doing cartwheels in the background of a Mac Jones interview. Sometimes it means leaning into the happy-go-lucky hayseed persona, as he did when he showed up to the Eagles’ first preseason game in boots, overalls and not much else. But Dickerson also has to be more patient than Smith and Hurts. For one, there was the torn ACL he was rehabbing most of the summer that kept him off the practice field. He has been a full participant in practice this week and could make his debut as soon as Sunday. While Smith and Hurts are already perhaps the two most important players on offense, though, Dickerson has been learning in a room that features three veteran Pro Bowlers and no immediate opening in the lineup.
This is OL Landon Dickerson, who is not playing tonight, with his pre-game gear.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/L4zm507J71
— Dave Spadaro (@EaglesInsider) August 19, 2021
“Everybody’s got a role on your team,” Dickerson told The Athletic. “My role is really to just learn and get the knowledge from these guys. You know, you combine all the guys up on that starting line, there’s probably 40 years of game experience there. And that’s just something that you know you can’t replicate. The things they know, the things they see, just getting that knowledge is super important. You’re playing a long game and I’m really here to serve whatever purpose the staff feels I need to serve, so for me right now, that’s really just learning, developing and getting better.”
Perhaps Dickerson’s experience proving himself at Alabama is instructive as he works to get on the field. The competition is stiffer, but an early second-round pick may not leave the lineup once he enters it.
“He came in and he literally started at the bottom of the depth chart, just like every new player does when they show up,” Flood said. “And every step of the way, you’ve got to earn your way up the depth chart like everyone in the program had to. And you have to be accepting of that.”
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How long did it take for Flood to realize Dickerson would eventually move his way up the depth chart?
“Yeah, probably one practice.”
Like Smith, Dickerson is probably not spending too much time out on the town, at least not without his fiancée. Football-wise, there is more to him than a winning personality. In the spring, long before Sirianni introduced “Dawg culture” as something of an ethos for the team, both Hurts and Smith described Dickerson independently as a “dog.”
“The way I view football is, my mindset is no matter what the score is, I’ve always wanted to make the other team quit,” Dickerson said shortly after he was drafted. “And that’s really the same kind of mindset I want to bring here. It’s just relentlessness on and off the field and in everything you do, and I think it’s not only a great mindset for games but anything you do in life. It’s kind of like, anything worth doing is worth overdoing, you know? That’s just really how I feel, and it brought us success at Alabama, and I feel like the same mindset could bring us success to this team this year.”
The lasting memory of Dickerson’s time at Alabama came in January’s national championship game win over Ohio State. He had suffered his torn ACL in the SEC Championship Game but convinced Saban to let him dress for the title game so he could suit up with his teammates. With Alabama leading by 28 points in the waning moments of the game, Dickerson talked his way onto the field to take the final snaps.
“People have told me it was great that I put him in the game,” Flood said. “If you think I put him in, you’re out of your mind. There’s no chance I put him in the game. The head coach put him in.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban puts injured offensive lineman Landon Dickerson in for the final plays of the 2021 national championship game. (Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)Maybe coaches love all their players equally, but as close as Saban appears with Smith and Dickerson, Hurts is the one who nearly moved him to tears.
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After losing the quarterback competition with Tua Tagovailoa following his very public benching in the championship game, Hurts surprised most everyone by sticking around for the 2018 season as a backup and bided his time for a moment he knew would come. His time came in the SEC Championship Game, where else but at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, when he relieved an injured Tagovailoa to lead a come-from-behind victory over the same Georgia team against whom he’d been benched. This time, Hurts scored the game-winning touchdown on a 15-yard run with just over one minute left (of course, the closest teammate to Hurts as he crossed the goal line, still blocking the cornerback, was Smith). After the game, Hurts’ standing in the program was made clear.
“Anyone who had watched Saban remain impervious to emotion throughout his career recalls the head coach’s postgame television interview, when, his arm around Hurts, he could barely choke out the words,” wrote Ivan Maisel in 2019. “‘I’m so proud of this guy for what he’s done this year,’ Saban said. ‘I can’t even tell you.’
“‘I think that’s why we always had a love for each other,’ Hurts says of the similarities with his former head coach, ‘and our relationship will never die because of that connection.’”
Make no mistake, while Hurts was technically drafted out of Oklahoma, he’s very much an Alabama product. Throughout training camp, Hurts, who is intentional with almost everything he does, often wore a white Alabama T-shirt underneath his practice jersey, displaying it proudly while signing autographs or sitting down for a press conference. He references slogans or lessons learned from Saban often.
Before the start of the season, the 23-year-old Hurts was named one of the Eagles’ six captains following a team vote. That’s not necessarily unusual for a quarterback. But while Smith and Dickerson were purposefully selected as foundational pieces for the Eagles’ rebuild, Hurts is entering what is essentially a one-year tryout to be the team’s long-term quarterback. As a rookie, his magnetic confidence quickly endeared him to the locker room and fuzzied the behind-the-scenes dynamics of a fraught quarterback picture. Off the field, Hurts checks every box. What he does on the field will determine his future with the organization.
On Sunday, the Eagles will play in front of a full stadium of fans for the first time since before any of Hurts, Smith or Dickerson were on the team. As much as they bring their Alabama pasts with them, they also know the tide rolls forward.
“We had great memories there,” Dickerson said, “but we’re with the Eagles now and that’s our priority. It’s something that we’ll always have, but right now we’re focused on making this team the best we can.”
(Top photo of Jalen Hurts, left, and DeVonta Smith: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
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