Eagles sign DE Za’Darius Smith, place Ben VanSumeren on injured reserve
Smith, who turns 33 on Monday, was a free agent who played with Cleveland and Detroit last season, piling up nine sacks in 17 games.
The Eagles added to their pass rushing depth Friday afternoon, signing veteran defensive end Za’Darius Smith.
Smith, who turns 33 on Monday, was a free agent who played with Cleveland and Detroit last season, piling up nine sacks in 17 regular season games. Smith is a 10-year NFL veteran who started his career in Baltimore as a fourth-round pick in 2015 out of Kentucky. Smith has 69 sacks in 140 career regular season games and another four sacks in nine postseason games.
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To make room for Smith, the Eagles placed fullback Ben VanSumeren on injured reserve. VanSumeren was carted off the field after going down with an injury on the opening kickoff Thursday night.
The Eagles were missing interior lineman Jalen Carter on Thursday night after he was ejected before the first play from scrimmage, and they became much easier to defend up front. The edge room was already pretty thin, and it looked like it against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Eagles lost Josh Sweat to free agency and Brandon Graham retired. They replaced them with one-year deals for veterans Joshua Uche, Azeez Ojulari, and Ogbo Okoronkwo. All of them made the 53-man roster out of camp, but Ojulari and Okoronkwo were scratched for Thursday’s game.
Nolan Smith (85%) and Jalyx Hunt (64%) had large workloads Thursday night and had minimal impact. Uche played 19 snaps (31%) and Patrick Johnson, who was elevated from the practice squad, played 12 (20%).
The Eagles are hopeful Smith still has more in the tank. He’s a three-time Pro Bowl selection who last made it in 2022 with the Minnesota Vikings. He was also a second-team All-Pro with Green Bay in 2020 and had a career-high 13.5 sacks with the Packers in 2019.