With his mentor Brandon Graham gone, Eagles edge rusher Nolan Smith is ready to ‘bring my own flavor’

At just 24 years old, Smith is the longest-tenured Eagles edge rusher. He has big shoes to fill.

Nolan Smith had a breakout season in 2024.Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Published June 24, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

Brandon Graham may be gone, retired from the NFL after 15 seasons with the Eagles. But he’s still present for Nolan Smith in many ways.

Smith, who broke out with the Eagles during his second season, said he sees the words “be you” every morning on his mirror at home, advice from the longtime Eagles leader to Smith.

He still routinely calls Graham, too, like when he would be on his way into the NovaCare Complex this spring for treatment on his torn left triceps, an injury he suffered in the first half of the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory. In an aligning of the cosmos, the player Smith is sort of tasked with replacing in a leadership role among the edge rushers returned from that same injury in the Super Bowl.

“You can’t fill nobody’s shoes,” Smith said. “I would never do that.”

But Smith will lean on Graham and his journey moving forward. Graham, a two-time Walter Payton Man of the Year award nominee, spent a lot of his time being active in the community. Smith wants to carry that torch, too. He spent Sunday afternoon at Downingtown West High School hosting a youth football camp. He posed for pictures with young fans and some of their parents and played quarterback at the scrimmage station. (Don’t worry, Jalen Hurts, Smith threw an interception while playing quarterback for the 5- and 6-year-olds.)

“My direct access is trying to take care of kids and taking care of the future,” Smith said. “If we don’t pour into the future … BG poured into me, so how can I not do this?"

Smith said he attended a lot of camps as a kid, and his most memorable was Herschel Walker’s camp in Georgia. His message for the kids Sunday was to “have fun and also try to compete a little bit. We’ve got 6-year-olds out here. I just want them to have fun, run around, jog around, and have a good time.”

That was largely Smith’s persona during his second season with the Eagles. While he racked up 6½ sacks and became a reliable edge rusher, Smith’s personality and smile sparkled.

Those things probably aren’t going anywhere, but Smith is also going to be tasked with being a leader. The Eagles aren’t just without Graham, they also lost Josh Sweat to free agency and traded veteran rusher Bryce Huff, whose lone season with the Eagles was a disappointment.

At 24 years old, Smith is the longest-tenured edge rusher in the room. And while Smith came on strong in his second season, and rookie Jalyx Hunt was a bit of a revelation as a third-round pick in 2024, edge rusher is a position group on defense that has some lingering question marks heading into training camp.

“I’m ready for that role, but I can’t replace BG and what he does,” Smith said. “I can only try my best to see how he did it and what he does, and also bring my own flavor to it. I’m always going to be a juice guy and I always talk to my guys and tell them to meet me at the ball and stuff like that. That gets guys going.”

Smith, who is still recovering from a February surgery to repair the injury he played through during the second half of the Super Bowl, was limited to individual drills during OTAs and minicamp. But watching on the sidelines during team drills offered a different perspective, he said.

“I took a step back, but I also got to see it from a different lens,” Smith said. “I got to see how it all works together. I was mostly sitting back and watching guys, but also cheering them on.

“I love our guys. We’re a group and we’re all rushing together and learning from each other.”

How the depth chart at edge rusher plays out will be an intriguing storyline to watch at camp. Will Josh Uche or Azeez Ojulari, both on one-year deals, break out during camp? Will Hunt position himself as the clear starter opposite Smith?

“I’m expecting big things,” Smith said of Hunt. “He ain’t little bro no more. He’s 100% a big dog and I told him I need him to work every day like it.”

After hosting Sunday’s youth camp, Smith was slated to head back out to Los Angeles, where he spent last offseason working out. He’s hoping to be at 100% when training camp begins on July 22, when his third season begins in earnest in a new role. He’ll carry Graham’s words with him moving forward, and along the way, he’ll continue to lean on Graham’s journey from first-round bust to two-time champion.

“I just want to be me, and it’s not for me, it’s for B,” Smith said. “He was doubted when he first got here, and so was I, and he just kept pushing me and he leaned into me, and, as we say in the South, he just poured in my glass just a little bit more. He just kept pouring in my glass and he believed in me. I tell him, I’m not going to stop. My first sack dance, I already got it in my head.”