Kirby Smart excited to sit down and watch NFL this weekend
It’s not often that Kirby Smart has a free day to sit back on the couch and watch football. With his team sent home for the holidays and having a little bit of time off from preparation for the College Football Playoffs, that’s exactly what the Georgia head coach plans to do on Saturday with a full slate on NFL games that include several of his former players.
“I don’t watch many movies. I’m a big fan of getting to watch the games. I don’t get to watch many games, so the NFL games that come on, I watch those and any other sporting events,” Smart said during a Friday morning radio appearance on 92.9 The Game. “We haven’t really watched many movies, not since the kids got a little bit older.”
Smart, who has admitted before that his youngest son Andrew tends to stay up to date on the happenings around the NFL better than he does, didn’t know that games were taking place on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend with the holidays happening. That means he’ll get to sit down both days and watch the likes of offensive stars Nick Chubb and George Pickens along with his defensive Dawgs Roquan Smith and Lorenzo Carter, among many others, during his down time.
Asked specifically about Pickens and the spectacular rookie season he’s having in Pittsburgh, Smart said he wasn’t surprised. The standout Steelers receiver has 42 catches for 643 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the season, his first full one back from a torn ACL suffered before his junior year at Georgia.
“Yeah, he is. Yeah he is. That’s no surprise to me. I got to see that first hand every day,” Smart said. “Every day. There’s a reel of those that were just unreal. He daily made catches like that. He’s one of the best contested catch guys I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Pickens and the Steelers play the Las Vegas Raiders, who have fellow Georgia rookie Zamir White on roster, in primetime Saturday night at 8:15 p.m. ET on NFL Network on a weekend that features at least one Georgia player in every game.
Week 16 NFL Schedule
1:00 p.m. ET (SAT) – Atlanta Falcons (Lorenzo Carter) @ Baltimore Ravens (Ben Cleveland, Justin Houston, Nick Moore, Roquan Smith)
1:00 p.m. ET – Detroit Lions (D’Andre Swift) @ Carolina Panthers
1:00 p.m. ET – Buffalo Bills (James Cook, Isaiah McKenzie) @ Chicago Bears
1:00 p.m. ET – New Orleans Saints @ Cleveland Browns (Nick Chubb)
1:00 p.m. ET – Seattle Seahawks @ Kansas City Chiefs (Mecole Hardman, Malik Herring)
1:00 p.m. ET – New York Giants (Lawrence Cager, Azeez Ojulari, Andrew Thomas) @ Minnesota Vikings
1:00 p.m. ET – Cincinnati Bengals (Trey Hill) @ New England Patriots (David Andrews)
1:00 p.m. ET – Houston Texans @ Tennessee Titans (Chris Conley, Monty Rice)
4:05 p.m. ET – Washington Commanders @ San Francisco 49ers (Charlie Woerner)
4:25 p.m. ET – Philadelphia Eagles (Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean) @ Dallas Cowboys
8:15 p.m. ET – Las Vegas Raiders (Zamir White) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (George Pickens)
1:00 p.m. ET (SUN) – Green Bay Packers (Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt) @ Miami Dolphins (John Jenkins, Channing Tindall)
4:30 p.m. ET – Denver Broncos @ Los Angeles Rams (Leonard Floyd, Derion Kendrick)
8:20 p.m. ET – Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Jake Camarda) @ Arizona Cardinals (AJ Green, Jonathan Ledbetter)
8:15 p.m. ET (MON) – Los Angeles Chargers (Tre’ McKitty, Sony Michel, Jamaree Salyer) @ Indianapolis Colts
