DeVonta Smith echoes A.J. Brown's frustrations about Eagles offense

DeVonta Smith echoes A.J. Brown's frustrations about Eagles offense originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

DeVonta Smith wants the football too. He wants the offense to be better. He's frustrated.

The only difference is that he didn't tweet about it.

Just like A.J. Brown, Smith left the visitor's locker room at Raymond James Stadium after Sunday's win over the Buccaneers without speaking to reporters. But unlike Brown, Smith didn't let his frustration about the offense boil over in a tweet that stirred up drama this week.

But Smith understands exactly where Brown is coming from.

He's a great leader," Smith said on Friday. Probably like most of the guys on this team, he wants what's best for the team. Things aren't necessarily going our way offensively and I don't think there's nothing wrong with him wanting better in that situation. I certainly feel the same way."

The Eagles' offense looked great in the first half in Tampa in Week 4 and built up a big lead. But then the offense went into a free-fall in the second half and Jalen Hurts failed to complete a single pass.

When asked how he felt after Sunday's 31-25 win, Smith on Friday said, I'm gonna keep that to myself."

That's the big difference between the Eagles' two star receivers this week.

Everybody handles things differently," Smith said. I control what I can control. The play calls are the play calls, the coverages we getting are the coverages. Sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to and that's just that."

Head coach Nick Sirianni has never been shy about the plan for the Eagles' passing offense. He wants it to run through Brown, Smith and Dallas Goedert. But things just aren't clicking right now, at least not consistently.

The Eagles finished off the Rams game with an epic comeback fueled by a high-flying passing offense and when the got off to a hot start in Tampa, it looked like the passing game woes were behind them. But the Bucs adjusted and the Eagles floundered.

They're 4-0 right now but are clearly not playing their best ball on offense in the run or pass game.

Nothing on offense is going good right now and I think that's where the frustration comes at with a lot of us," Smith said. Not that we just want the ball and things like that. We want the offense to be moving in the right direction and right now we're not doing that. The defense is carrying us. The defense is playing lights out. The special teams is doing some good things right now. Offensively, we have to be better."

Because Brown is widely considered one of the top receivers in the NFL and has two 1,400+ yard seasons under his belt, it can be easy to overlook Smith at times. But the Eagles have two star receivers.

Smith was a first-round pick, a Heisman Trophy winner and has come up in the clutch for the Eagles since they drafted him in 2021. He also has a couple 1,000-yard seasons.

There are a lot of mouths to feed in this offense and some hungry skill players through four weeks.

Through four games, Smith has just 17 catches on 20 targets for 158 yards and 1 touchdowns. He's averaging just 39.5 yards per game. There are 59 players with more targets than Smith so far in this NFL season.

On Friday, Smith was asked how he stays engaged when the targets aren't coming his way.

It's up and down," Smith said. Every week is different. Some weeks I handle it well, some weeks I don't. I don't really know how to answer that."