Eagles To Decline Marcus Smith’s Option

The Eagles will not exercise defensive end Marcus Smith‘s option for 2018, reports Zach Berman of Philly.com.

Marcus Smith

Fifth-year options are guaranteed for injury only, meaning the Eagles would not have necessarily committed themselves to Smith had they picked it up. Nevertheless, they didn’t want to take an $8.718MM risk on a player who has disappointed since going 26th overall in the 2014 draft.

Smith, a former Louisville Cardinal, hasn’t started in any of his 37 professional appearances, and he has totaled just four sacks. The 25-year-old is coming off his first 16-game season, in which he put up 12 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 268 defensive snaps. He was a bigger factor on special teams, playing over 40 percent of the unit’s snaps. That’s clearly not what the Eagles had in mind when they invested a first-round pick in him.

Looking to next season, potentially Smith’s last in Philadelphia, he could face even more of an uphill battle to make a defensive impact, as Berman notes. With two new additions – first-rounder Derek Barnett and free agent pickup Chris Long – joining Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry, the Eagles have plenty of non-Smith options at defensive end.

View Comments (6)