Philadelphia Eagles: DeVonta Smith has a right to be upset

When the clock hit zero, and the Philadelphia Eagles officially lost to the New York Giants, DeVonta Smith was mad.

Now granted, so were a lot of fans across the Eaglesverse, as losing to the Giants is never fun, but Smith had a special kind of anger because he was effectively a non-factor in the back half of the game.

Considering the weird relationship Smith had with the Giants, who wanted to draft him very badly, this couldn’t stand.

So Smith did what any rookie receiver on pace for 1,000 yards would do, he took off his helmet, chucked it at the bench, and chewed out head coach Nick Sirianni for not getting targeted once over the final two drives of the game.

While his tactics probably weren’t ideal, there’s little about DeVonta Smith’s feelings that aren’t valid, as the Philadelphia Eagles seriously mismanaged their offensive decision-making at the end of a very winnable game.

DeVonta Smith has to lead the Philadelphia Eagles’ receivers in targets.

DeVonta Smith is the Philadelphia Eagles’ best wide receiver.

Despite still being a rookie, Smith has already proven himself a head and shoulders better offensive contributor than Jalen Reagor, Greg Ward, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and even Quez Watkins, and has more than earned the WR1 moniker no Eagles receiver has really been able to legitimately fill since Alshon Jeffery‘s golden days.

Outside of maybe Dallas Goedert, who was also criminally under-targeted on Week 12, there isn’t a player on the team who should fall higher on the receiver hierarchy than Smith, especially on clutch downs or crucial moments in the game.

And yet, over the final two drives of the game, Smith didn’t see a single ball thrown his way. To make matters worse, Smith was only targeted four times on the afternoon in general, catching two passes for 22 yards in one of his least memorable performances as a pro.

Smith wasn’t targeted on his signature comeback route, didn’t get much work across the middle of the field – which is beyond common in this current offense – and, most embarrassing of all, saw what should have been his touchdown instead fail to connect with Greg Ward, who averages something like a target a month at this point in his career.

In a weird way, it almost felt like Nick Sirianni was tasked with getting lesser-used receivers involved in the game as some weird, midseason evaluation. For JJAW, the results were good, even if his second catch in as many weeks was overshadowed by a botched blocking play that ended with a yellow flag. And for Ward and Reagor? Yeah, not so much.

The results? A loss to a division rival, the chances of a spot in the Wild Card race diminished, and a rookie wide receiver who is not too happy with management.

Is it ideal to deploy a run-heavy offense with only two legitimate volume receivers and a little floor spacing with Quez Watkins? No. Ideally, all five of the team’s wide receivers would be able to contribute, and Jalen Hurts would have a cornucopia of offensive options to throw to. But, unfortunately, that isn’t the Philadelphia Eagles’ reality. No, to win games, Nick Sirianni needs to keep Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith near the top of the read order on virtually every passing play he calls and never ever let a crucial, game-defining drive go by without the Dynamic Ds – or, you know, a cooler nickname – touching the ball early and often. If that’s the lesson learned from Week 12, it’s a good one.