As Nolan Smith turned to see a group of reporters gathered by his locker, he had to set a quick ground rule: He’d answer a few questions but then he had to go find his mama.

She was probably pretty proud on Sunday night.

Because Smith played the best game of his NFL career as the Eagles beat the Packers 22-10 to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs.

“I go out there and I just want to make my mama proud and make the 10 guys next to me proud,” Smith said. “When they turn on the film, they know 3 gonna fly around to the ball. I just try to do that every day, even in practice.”

Smith on Sunday was all over the field. He had 7 tackles, 2 sacks, a special teams tackle and provided a ton of energy in the wild-card win over Green Bay. At 23 years old, Smith became the youngest Eagles player ever have 2 sacks in a playoff game.

Head coach Nick Sirianni said he gave Smith a game ball after the win.

“I want my sons to play football like Nolan Smith,” Sirianni said. “Before my kids go out to play any sport, I say, ‘Have fun, play hard, be physical.’ That guy is the definition of those things. He has fun out there. He has fun with his teammates. His teammates love him. 

“He plays hard as I’ve ever seen anybody play, and this dude is a physical, physical, physical guy. I can’t say enough about the way he plays this game. He loves this game.”

Entering Sunday, Packers quarterback Jordan Love had been sacked just 14 times in 15 games this season. The Eagles got him twice on Sunday; both times it was Smith who came up with the sack. Smith had one for a 14-yard loss in the first quarter and one for a 3-yard loss in the fourth quarter.

How did he do it?

“Man, on both of them, my D-tackles,” Smith said. “My D-tackles had good rushes and we set it up with the games. But my D-tackles, man. Shoutout to [Milton Williams]. I might give Milt half of my playoff check because we was joking about it.”

In addition to his two sacks, Smith was also great against the run on Sunday — way better than you’d expect from an undersized edge rusher. Smith has really turned himself into a good and well-rounded player in Year 2 of his career and it’s hard to imagine where the Eagles would be without him.

The emergence of Smith this season is one of the Eagles’ biggest and most important storylines of 2024. They used the No. 30 overall pick on Smith out of Georgia last season but he had a quiet rookie year so expectations were somewhat tempered entering this season. But Bryce Huff hasn’t worked out and Brandon Graham is out for the season so the Eagles needed more from Smith.

And he has exceeded all expectations.

Smith has gotten progressively better and better and has morphed into one of the most important players on the Eagles’ No. 1-ranked defense. Smith this year ended up taking over as a starter and had 6 1/2 sacks, 11 QB hits and 8 tackles for loss in the regular season. He’s now continuing to produce in the playoffs.

For a team that spent big on Huff with little return and that might lose Josh Sweat in free agency this offseason, at least Smith is one edge player worth building around.

He is already good and still getting better.

“It’s just growth mindset,” Smith said. “I can always get better. There’s some things that I even wish I would have done better tonight. It’s a growth mindset.”

Sirianni on Sunday night praised general manager Howie Roseman for bringing in players who love football, are tough and have high football IQ.

It’s clear that Sirianni sees all those characteristics in Smith.

“Those guys have a tendency, God willing, to reach their full potential,” Sirianni said. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing. The intangibles for Nolan Smith are there, so you’re seeing him get better each week and each time he steps on the field because when you have those intangibles, particularly, you have no choice but to get better. You just get better.”

In addition to his stellar play on defense Sunday, the Eagles also used Smith more on special teams. They added him to the kickoff unit and he made a special teams tackle on Keisean Nixon on a kick return in the first quarter.

The Eagles had struggled recently on kickoffs so they decided to add Smith to the mix. Some starters might not be eager to play more on teams but that wasn’t a problem with Smith, who was eager to face off against his friend, Packers 2023 first-round pick Lukas Van Ness.

“I was excited to be out there,” Smith said. “Man, it’s football. This is what I signed up for. Kickoff, punt return, all that. This is what I’m here for. I don’t care nothing about ‘Oh, you this and that.’ It’s football and we get opportunity to play a game that we love.”

If you think back to the beginning of this season, Smith got off to a bit of a slow start. In the first four games of the season, Smith had 0 sacks, 0, QB hits and 0 tackles for loss. He said he wouldn’t even recognize himself on tape from the Eagles’ Week 1 win over these same Packers.

But since the bye week, Smith has been one of the Eagles’ best players. And he had the best game of his career on Sunday.

What will his mom say about this one?

“Man, I don’t know but I know she’s going to cry and give me a hug,” Smith said. “It’s my first playoff win in the NFL and I told myself, ‘Man, just leave it all out there on the field every time.’ That’s what I tried to do.”

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