DeVonta Smith is just 37 yards away from a Philadelphia Eagles record

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the playoffs… probably.

With one game left to play, the team is sitting pretty at 9-7 and could theoretically make the playoffs regardless of their outcome versus the Dallas Cowboys in Week 18, assuming the teams below them all either lose or tie. If that doesn’t happen, their easiest path to the playoffs would be to take back a win from Dallas, who probably won’t be playing their starters since their playoff fortune is more or less set.

For that to happen, the Birds will need to rely on their run game, keep targeting Dallas Goedert in the short/intermediate part of the field, and continue to utilize DeVonta Smith as WR1.

If that happens and Smith goes off to the tune of 125 yards, the Philadelphia Eagles will have their first 1,000-yard receiver since Jeremy Maclin, but even if he doesn’t, the rookie receiver just needs 37 more receiving yards to etch his place in the history books forever.

DeVonta Smith is on the path to a Philadelphia Eagles record.

In 2008, DeSean Jackson set a new record for the most receiving yards recorded by a Philadelphia Eagles rookie at a cool 912.

If you remember back to that season, a campaign that saw the Eagles go 9-6-1 and make a nice playoff run, Jackson’s emergence was a revelation, and his ability to play on both offense and special teams gave Andy Reid’s team a new wrinkle they’d never previously had over his tenure: Speed. Blazing, generational speed.

While Smith, too, is deceptively fast, though not quite D-Jax fast, his addition to the Eagles had a similar effect, in that they didn’t have a true blue do-it-all receiver capable of running crisp routes, getting open, and, well, doing-it-all.

For one thing, Smith runs good routes. He routinely tricks would-be cover guys on comebacks and outs and has technical moves that players five years older are still trying to master as a first-year, first-round draft pick. Smith has good speed, position versatility, and a competitive spirit that some receivers – you can think of some – will never have.

Through 16 games of action, Smith has put up an average of 54.7 yards per game, which doesn’t seem like a lot but is the most by an Eagles wide receiver since Alshon Jeffery averaged 64.8 in 2018. Among rookies, Smith’s marks are the best since Jackson back in 2008, just narrowly beating out Jordan Matthews by .2 yards per game or three yards total.

If the regular season ended today, Smith would rank second all-time among rookie Eagles receivers, sandwiched between Jackson and Matthews. While his five touchdowns fall well below JMat’s record-tying eight, very few people would quibble with what the pride of Alabama was able to put on tape, especially with how up and down the regular season was for his team.

Fortunately, for the first time in NFL history, the regular season doesn’t end at Week 17, with an 18th week added to the schedule to…

provide the league with more revenue

add excitement to the game.

Because of that adjustment to the league schedule, the Eagles now have one more week to punch their ticket to the playoffs – if the season ended today, they’d be in – and Smith has a chance to rack up those final 37 yards needed to cement his place in franchise history as Philly’s all-time leading rookie receiver.

Considering his current yards per game average, that should be pretty easy to do.

There’s no doubt about it; the Philadelphia Eagles got a good one in DeVonta Smith. While he probably won’t be a 1,000-yard receiver, he’ll almost surely surpass DeSean Jackson’s record in Week 18, which will be the perfect cherry on top of a season that started out promising, got real bad real quick, but ultimately turned out nice in the end. Let’s just hope the Eagles hold onto their current prized rookie receiver better than they did with their last one.