The Eagles hope to see major returns on their late-season investment of pickup Brad Smith. Photo courtesy ESPN.com
When the Eagles signed wide receiver and special teams ace Brad Smith Tuesday it was easy to view the move as the team simply shoring up some holes heading into the stretch run and nothing more.
On Wednesday Chip Kelly dispelled that notion.
"A lot," Kelly responded when asked Wednesday how much he expects Smith to be able to do. "The one thing that stuck out to us about Brad is he's an outstanding special teams player. He can return kickoffs, he can cover kickoffs, he can cover punts and return punts for us. He's a four core special teams player. The way we design this with our wide receivers is that if you're not the starter you better be able to play special teams.
"If you're up and on the 46-man roster, you've gotta be ready to go. I think that if Roc [Carmichael] gets pushed up and needs to start taking more reps on defense at corner, we need someone else to pick up that slack on special teams I think it works good for Brad. He can play all four special teams, can also play receiver, he's played emergency quarterback at time, running back at times and that versatility is huge for him."
Don't expect Smith to take any snaps under center anytime soon, though. The former Buffalo Bill and New York Jet barely made it to Philadelphia in time to attend practice on Tuesday and wisely the head coach doesn't want to burden him with learning too many positions at once.
"Where is he at this Sunday? We'll have to see on that," Kelly pointed out. "He literally walked into the bubble yesterday, shook my hand I told him to head over and cover the kick right away. We'll see where he is and make an educated decision Saturday to see where he is."
Regardless of his immediate role, Smith is just happy to be a part of what he views as a team on the rise behind Kelly, a first-year head coach.
“I know as much as you can from watching it on TV, in college and now in the pros, but obviously he’s very creative,” Smith said of Kelly.
“Guys are making plays all over the field. There’s so much talent out there. It’s going to be fun to be a part of and learn from all the guys and hopefully contribute.”
Smith brings career totals of 970 rushing yards, 101 receptions, 949 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns to Philly.
The Bills, who signed Smith to a four-year, $15 million contract before the 2011 season, placed him on injured reserve with broken ribs on Aug. 30 and then waived him off IR on Friday. He cleared waivers on Monday and then signed as a free agent with the Eagles on Tuesday.
Smith, 29, said that he's finally beginning to feel like he's recovered from his rib injury.
“You can’t breathe. You can’t lay down. You can’t use the bathroom without it hurting,” he said. “I’m going to be honest with you. Yeah, and then after a while I could start tolerating a lot more, and once I got clearance to start working out from the doctor up there [about three weeks ago], I started hitting pretty hard route running, conditioning, weight lifting.”
Regardless of when his signing came in the season, Smith is eager to tackle whatever role Kelly throws his way.
“I get a chance to learn how to do different things, and the skills I do have, to contribute in any way, whether I’m blocking on kickoff return, punt coverage, I’m going to go down and do my best and make a play,” he said.
“It would be cool [to play on offense]. We’ll see what coach has drawn up. My job now is to get acclimated and get into the playbook and see where I can fit in. We haven’t talked, I just got here, we’ll see how it works out.”
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
