First-round talent DeVonta Smith was the ideal ‘X’ receiver at Alabama, and here’s how the Eagles can deploy him in similar fashion.
The Philadelphia Eagles traded up to get the highest-valued wide receiver in their recent history, Alabama’s DeVonta Smith. He is a Heisman winner who led all of college football in receptions (105), receiving yards (1,641), receiving touchdowns (20) and all-purpose yards (1,912) last season. With new head coach Nick Sirianni leading this new receiver in the Eagles offense, Sirianni won’t have to change much as he is accustomed to coaching some pretty solid X receivers in his past.
As the offensive coordinator with the Indianapolis Colts, Sirianni had TY Hilton (5-foot-10) as his X receiver, and Hilton’s a guy who is a force on the inside with his size and shiftiness but with his route running ability can line up on the outside against the best corner on any defense. When Sirianni was a wide receivers coach with the San Diego Chargers, he had a completely different X receiver in terms of height with Keenan Allen (6-foot-2). Devonta Smith is 6-foo0, prototypical X receiver who lines up on the outside but also lined up in the middle as well; in fact he lined up on the inside 37% of the time in 2020.
Just to make it clear, the X receiver doesn’t always have to be lined up on the outside, its simply the guy with the best hands and separation on the team; in terms of location the X is usually lining up opposite of the tight-end. Why? It adds some dimension to an offense, so the defense has to account for every receiver from sideline to sideline. With a guy who has hands, size and speed like Smith, the Eagles are in a great position when he’s on the field with Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz. Having these threats at the tight end position gives Sirianni some comfortability coming from an offense with TE Jack Doyle and TE Trey Burton.
Oddly enough back in 2019, when Nick Sirianni was the OC with the Colts, he actually broke down a few concepts that the Philadelphia Eagles were using that were very similar to what the Colts were going to use in the 2020 season. The plays he referred to will be some of the base concepts that Sirianni will use in his pass scheme with the Eagles. It will be heavily relied on Hurts to find Smith on the timed routes in the short passing game; and in the deep game, locating mismatches using concept routes from 2-man stacks and from trips to create that initial separation giving Hurts time to go through his reads and find his new rookie receiver.
In this video, Sirianni had TY Hilton line up on the inside with two faster guys on the outside. The guys on the outside job is to pull the safety in to help the cornerback who is zone, which leaves Hilton one-on-one down field.
Sirianni was waiting for this look/mismatch all game and once they saw the coverage, they had to trust in Hilton to run his route perfectly.
At Alabama, Smith saw similar looks from trips. In this video, the situation was almost identical with TY Hilton. The number-one (X) receiver is lined up on the inside to create a mismatch and now all Smith has to do is get over the top and use his top-end speed to get the six.
From 11 personnel, we will see jet sweeps, bubble screens, and exploiting one-on-one matchups when the defense is in man coverage. Having fast guys on the outside forces the safety to choose which route to cover. In the video below we have Smith in a 2-Man stack on the outside, he holds his block long enough to watch the safety close in on the screen then Smith breaks loose downfield.
In 12 personnel (two tight-end sets) we can can expect some pass plays but a heavy run game from that same formation. This keeps a defense honest. At Alabama, their offense ran this personnel with two tight ends on the line of scrimmage as well. The X receiver can line up on the outside but then motion to the inside, forcing the defense to be unbalanced.
This is a play that is often run in the NFL and Smith has the speed and shifty hips to get to the edge.
It’s always hard to predict what exactly a new offense will look like but with Sirianni’s comfortability in a similar personnel, DeVonta Smith’s elite route running, Reagor’s and Fulgham’s big-play ability, two tight-end downfield threats and a player like Miles Sanders in the backfield, this passing offense can be described in one word: Balance.
