Marcus Smith Wants To Be The Spark Off The Bench

Eagles outside linebacker Marcus Smith started out today’s practice working with the rest of the team, but once they got into the 7-on-7 pass drill, Smith was back over in the corner working with one of the trainers.  I was disappointed and I’m sure all you Eagles fans, who are reading this are disappointed as well.

Here you have a guy that the team is depending on to back up outside linebackers Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham and Smith can’t even start practicing throughout the total workout yet.

He explained what happened after the workout and why he didn’t participate in the practice through its entirety.

“They don’t want me to jump back in so I’d get hurt again,” Smith said. “Wednesday will be the day.”

“It was my groin.  I had a groin injury a couple weeks ago.  It was on a Tuesday on the second OTA practice.”

I don’t want to see him do anything stupid to prolong his injury, but Smith has got to display more toughness and persistence.

Smith plans on making people forget about his dreadful rookie season by being an outstanding player off the bench in 2015.

“I just think my impact will be kind of like the role that Brandon Graham was last year,” Smith said following today’s workout.  “I want to be that guy that comes in, sparks a game.”

We’ll see.  We could sure use it, because the team has nobody backing up the outside linebacker position, who is dependable.

Smith has put on 15 pounds of muscle, which was definitely needed.  He said he just copied his teammates.

“I took pointers from Connor Barwin, Brandon Graham and those guys, so I could be ready to play.”

All we can do is wait to see if the light has been turned on in Smith.  If it has we might have to change our evaluation of the 2014 NFL Draft.