Eagles Star Is Teaching Alabama's Teenage Sensation "To Punch Adversity In Mouth"

DeVonta Smith may show up when the Eagles open their second OTA this week. Or he may not. They are voluntary, but he isn’t sitting on his couch doing nothing.

According to DJ Siddiqi in a story for Esports Insider, Smith has been working out with Alabama standout receiver Ryan Williams, who turned the college football world upside down last year as a 17-year-old freshman, with eight touchdown catches and 865 yards receiving.

Williams told Siddiqi that Smith is “a different type of human, he’s a true gladiator. He’s in his own category, just because (of) the way he operates in day-to-day life.”

The workout regimen, which Williams described as including a 5 a.m. meet-up, then, after a break, they hit the track to run at 11:30 a.m. or noon – as the heat of the day begins to crackle.

“A lot of people wouldn’t understand or believe someone even operates like that, from us working out at five o’clock in the morning," said Williams. "Instead of running after we get done working out, because your body’s already hot, he relaxes right after and turns his body back on when the sun is at its peak.”

Smith’s regimen has taught Williams how to attack adversity.

“We go run on the track or get work in the field, noon or 11:30 in the morning, when the sun’s right above your head, just because he likes to attack adversity,” said Williams. “That’s pretty much a lot of what I learned in that amount of time, to just attack adversity. Adversity is always going to strike. It’s about how you respond to it, and we punch in adversity straight in the mouth.”

Smith has been everything the Eagles could have wanted when they traded up to get him 10th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. He broke the franchise record for most yards receiving as a rookie, which had been held by DeSean Jackson in 2008. Smith is already up to 308 catches for 4,011 yards and 27 touchdowns in four seasons.

He has already won a Super Bowl and been to a pair of them. In two Super Bowls, he has 11 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown. Smith is the Eagles’ postseason leader in yards with 595, coming on 43 receptions, and two TDs.

Smith won the Heisman Trophy in his final year at Alabama, becoming the first receiver to do so since Desmond Howard in 1991. He left Alabama holding several receiving records – yardage (3,965), touchdowns (46), most yards in one game (274), and touchdowns in one game (5).

Williams, who turned 18 in February, is aware of them and told Siddiqi he wants them all. Maybe training with Smith will help him get them. Smith, meanwhile, is getting his work in, whether he’s at OTAs or not.