Marcus Smith gets rare chance to play

TIME OF BIRTH: 1:28 p.m.

Marcus Smith's second NFL life began just before 1:30 yesterday, with 4 minutes, 52 seconds left in the first quarter.

Starting outside linebacker Connor Barwin lost his helmet during a tackle. Smith, the Eagles' first-round pick from 2014, last seen a year ago blowing a coverage against the 49ers, replaced him.

Perhaps his latest play can become his new signature moment. Near the end of the game, Smith got close enough to Saints quarterback Drew Brees to influence a poor pass that was intercepted.

Seriously.

That sounds normal, right? A first-round pick in his second season pressures the quarterback and helps win the game?

Well, Smith's inclusion was remarkable because of the amount of turmoil he had caused by not playing. "I haven't felt like this since college," Smith said. "Last year I was down on myself a lot."

Last year, he was weaker, slower and pressed into service at inside linebacker, where he had never played. With 15 more pounds of muscle, with two training camps and having at least prepared for 21 NFL games, he expected to succeed when given his next chance.

"The difference was, I was playing a position I had never played before. It was harder for me to adjust. This was my first snap at outside linebacker in the regular season," Smith said. "I felt really comfortable; I had 2 years to get acclimated."

In the NFL, time is not always on a player's side. A poor special-teams player, Smith was facing another season of irrelevance, perhaps to be followed by unemployment. His slow NFL start already cost one guy his job.

Fairly or not, Smith generally is considered the reason coach Chip Kelly was able to overthrow general manager Howie Roseman after Kelly had been in the NFL just two seasons. Smith played little in 2014, and when he did he was, frankly, a disaster. He made the 2015 team more on pedigree than performance; to say Smith was marginalized is to say MySpace has fallen out of vogue.

Smith dressed for 14 games last season but was largely ornamental. He was inactive for three of the Eagles' first four games this year. He dressed against the Jets in Game 3 only because inside linebackers Mychal Kendricks and Kiko Alonso were injured. Smith did not play, however.

Defensive coordinator Billy Davis swears Smith would have, but the Jets never played the personnel Smith was best suited to face.

You know, the personnel the Jets use when they're trailing by 50.

Kendricks returned for the loss at Washington, so Smith was inactive again, but Kendricks aggravated his injury; hence, Smith dressed for the Saints game.

Davis crossed his fingers, crossed his toes, but this time it didn't work. Davis had to use Smith.

It worked out.

On the first play, Smith dropped into coverage and Brees threw away from him. On the second, a running play went away from Smith. He then exited the game; Barwin returned, and Saints scored a touchdown. Smith played several more snaps and did not embarrass himself; eventually, he got a hand on Brees, recorded as a "quarterback hurry."

Smith also had an assist on a tackle, thereby matching his career high and raising his career total to . . . two.

Hey, it's a start.

A second start.

Blog: ph.ly/DNL