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Nolan Smith, Nakobe Dean celebrate at NFL Draft party: WATCH

On3 imageby:Wes Blankenship•04/27/23
Nolan Smith Nakobe Dean
Photo: Tony Walsh / UGA Sports Communications

Nolan Smith joined three Georgia teammates as an Eagles Draft pick. Even cooler? One of them was there to celebrate it with him.

The Eagles picked Smith 30th overall in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

They selected the EDGE rusher’s teammate – elite defensive lineman Jalen Carter – at ninth overall earlier in the evening.

These two Dawgs picks came in the NFL Draft class after Philadelphia picked two other Dawgs, of course.

The Eagles made defensive lineman Jordan Davis a first-round pick last year at 13th overall.

Then they drafted middle linebacker Nakobe Dean two rounds later with the 83rd pick.

Well, those Dawg bonds don’t break easy. And Nolan Smith invited Dean to his first-round NFL Draft party on Thursday evening.

In a fortuitous stroke for both Dawgs, Dean’s franchise decided to add yet another Dawg to the mix with their selection of Nolan Smith.

Check out the incredible moment below. Smith makes a beeline for Dean in a sea of friends and family.

I know Smith was excited, but if I’m the Eagles, I’m asking him to be a little more delicate with my stud linebacker’s arm and shoulder on that forceful Philly dap-up.

He’s undersized and injury-prone, remember?

Nolan Smith joins Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis as first-round Philly Dawgs in each of the two most recent NFL Drafts

That isn’t to say that Nakobe Dean is chopped liver.

He took an odd slide fueled by size and injury doubts in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Fast forward a year later.

Heading into this year’s Draft, he and Jordan Davis are the young core of the defending NFC Champion’s defense.

Now, Philadelphia adds Jalen Carter up the middle of that front seven.

And Nolan Smith’s 4.39 40-yard-dash speed brings a welcome, additional element of nasty speed.

Smith couldn’t finish his football senior season at Georgia after he tore his pec in the Dawgs’ 42-20 win over Florida.

Still, he remained on the team and used his vocal presence to motivate the team.

He even convinced his peers that people doubted them to the tune of predicting they would finish the season with a 7-5 record.

That wasn’t true, of course. But it didn’t matter. Smith planted the seed in practices, and it flourished.

Smith left Georgia with two National Championship rings in his final two seasons as a Dawg.

Now, that Georgia ‘connection’ remains intact with some of the key pieces from the Dawgs’ 2021 National Championship season

Davis, Dean, Carter and Smith not only give the Eagles a formidable Bulldog bond.

These relationships provide Jalen Carter with some much-needed stability coming off of a turbulent offseason in which his character became the focus of his NFL Draft stock, instead of his elite play.

The Eagles were one win away from a championship last season. What tends to win those?

Defense.

And no one knows that better than these four Philadelphia Bulldogs.

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