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PHILADELPHIA − The Eagles are becoming Georgia North as they picked edge rusher Nolan Smith with the second of their two first-round picks on Thursday night.
Earlier, the Eagles traded up one spot to No. 9 to select Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter. They gave the Bears a fourth-round pick in the 2024 draft.
Last spring, the Eagles took two more Georgia players in first-round pick Jordan Davis, a defensive tackle, and third-round pick Nakobe Dean, a linebacker.
Georgia, of course, has won the last two FBS national championships.
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Smith was expected to go higher in the first round, possibly in the No. 10 range for the Eagles’ first pick. Smith didn’t play in the national championship game last season as he suffered a pectoral muscle injury in early November and missed the rest of the season.
Smith, however, tested at the NFL Combine and ran a 4.39 in the 40-yard dash. He was the first defensive lineman/edge rusher to run a sub-4.4 at the Combine. Smith had 3 sacks last season and 4.5 the season before.
The two Georgia picks capped a night in which the Eagles kicked things off by making a trade minutes before the draft started. That resulted from a tampering charge against the Arizona Cardinals when they hired ex-Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon to be their head coach just days after the Super Bowl.
The Cardinals self-reported that they made contact with Gannon by phone after the NFC Championship game, a dead period for coaching interviews for those still involved in the playoffs.
The two teams settled by swapping third-round picks with the Eagles moving up from No. 94 to No. 66. The Eagles also gave the Cardinals a fifth-round pick in 2024.
In all, the Eagles have so far given up two of their picks in 2024. They were expected to have as many as 12 because of comp picks from losing free agents this spring.
But they got two star defensive players from Georgia, and four in the last two years.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.