unCovering the Birds with Jeff McLane, Episode 5: What’s in a draft bust?
Getting drafted in the first round is the dream scenario for just about any aspiring football player, but for former Philadelphia Eagle Marcus Smith, it was a total nightmare.
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Getting drafted in the first round is the dream scenario for just about any aspiring football player. But for former Philadelphia Eagle Marcus Smith, it was a total nightmare full of hellish professional and personal consequences. What if Smith, a prolific defensive sack artist in college chosen no. 26 overall in 2014, had been taken in the second or third round? What if he’d been drafted by another team instead of the Eagles? Would the prime years of his football career have turned out differently? These are questions the now retired 31-year old Smith often asks himself. With the 2023 NFL draft season in full swing, Philadelphia Inquirer Eagles beat reporter Jeff McLane explores Smith’s story, and how him being a first-round pick, combined with deep-seeded personal issues, pushed him closer to a life-threatening crossroads.
Follow Jeff McLane on Twitter. You can also read his work at inquirer.com.
unCovering the Birds with Jeff McLane sponsored by Wawa is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts.