Eagles' DeVonta Smith is headed into another stratosphere - ESPN

THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES' offense stepped onto the field in Week 2 down three on the road against the Tennessee Titans with 1:56 remaining. It was the kind of moment, receiver DeVonta Smith said immediately following the game, that «you live for.»

Quarterback Jalen Hurts went to Smith four times on the drive. Four times Smith delivered, including on a sideline throw in which Smith stood on his toes and fully extended his arms to snag the ball at a 45-degree angle on his way to the ground. Tap-tap. First down.

Then came the money play: third-and-6 from the Titans' 22. Hurts zipped one down the left side for Smith, who leaped and stretched high to catch the ball, pivoted away from an oncoming defender in midair, somehow, and managed to drag his feet in bounds as a pair of Titans players crashed on top of him — a picturesque 19-yard completion that set the stage for Darius Cooper's game-winning touchdown.

«I take a lot of pride in it,» Smith said of being the go-to guy in key moments. There was a short pause.

«I feel like it was time,» he continued, fresh off a 10-catch, 117-yard performance. «It was time for me to go out there and show what I can do, that I can be that guy. I had the opportunity and I went out there and did it.»

The subtext here is that the 27-year-old Smith and the Eagles are operating in the post-A.J. Brown world after Brown was traded to the New England Patriots in the offseason. Smith and Brown shined during their four years together, becoming the first Eagles duo to each post 1,000-plus receiving yards in a single season in 2022, then they did it again in '23 and '25. The franchise's all-time postseason receiving yards leader, Smith has hardly been stuck in the shadows.

But he has long been the 1B to