PHILADELPHIA — Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith looks bigger and stronger this summer. If the third-year product out of Alabama appears a little sleepy, it’s probably because he missed his nap. Smith, 24, thinks sleep is overrated. He may be the only 1,000-yard receiver in the league who gets by on four hours of sleep each night.
“I feel like everybody’s body is different,” Smith said after practice Sunday. “Some guys need a lot of sleep, some don’t. For me, I don’t need a lot of sleep. That’s just how my body functions.”
Smith is tougher than tough, having survived a hellacious hit from Justin Reid on a 12-yard reception giving the Eagles a big first down on the way to their first points in Super Bowl LVII. The play happened so fast the officials didn’t get downfield fast enough to see it was a head-to-head shot.
Though Smith led the Eagles with 95 receptions, he feels the best is yet to come. Last season he accumulated 1,196 receiver yards (12.6 ypr.) and seven touchdowns. He caught almost 70 percent of 136 targets, the latter trailing only A.J. Brown’s 145 targets.
“Since OTAs, I’ve been out here with the new guys with the team we have and building chemistry with those guys,” Smith said. “Coming in every day, going through daily routines with those guys just brings more excitement as you get closer to the season.”
With goals like Smith’s (he declined to reveal any) you don’t have much time to kill. Which is why his sleep routine varies except for the bottom line.
“It just depends on the day,” Smith said. “If it’s a day (that) we got a lot of time I’ll probably just nap in between in the day but if we don’t have enough time I just stick with my four and that’s it. I kind of go to sleep when I get tired and just get up when my alarm go off.”
Smith’s alarm, by the way, goes off at 5 a.m.
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The Eagles didn’t formally reveal the count but gauging by their Sunday morning practice 17 more players must be released to reach the 53-man limit by Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Unofficially, a dozen players were cut Sunday. Not practicing were:
Running back Kennedy Brooks, wide receivers Jadon Haselwood, Freddie Swain and Johnny King, tight end Tyree Jackson, and guard Tyrese Robinson on offense.
Defensively, adieus were bid to tackles Marvin Wilson, Caleb Sanders, Olive Sagapolu and Robert Cooper, and linebackers Quinton Bell and Tyreek Maddox-Williams.
The roster figures to be anything but set even after the Eagles hit the 53-man limit because there always are cuts from other teams claimed or signed after the market is flooded.
While it looks like the Eagles will keep all seven of their draft picks, seventh-round defensive tackle Moro Ojomo has been hurt, the product of Texas most recently returning to practice from a concussion.
“Obviously this part of the year is the worst part of football,” veteran tight end Dallas Goedert said Sunday. “You get so close with the 100 guys or whatever it is in camp and then you got to get down to 50. So, you lose a lot of people that you become close with over the last year.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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