{"id":282240,"date":"2026-09-09T13:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282240\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:58:12","slug":"eagles-news-espn-picks-philadelphia-to-return-to-the-super-bowl-against-the-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282240\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles News: ESPN picks Philadelphia to return to the Super Bowl against the Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g79 _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">Dating back to the spring, there has been palpable internal enthusiasm for what Smith can become in new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion\u2019s scheme. The 27-year-old has yet to surpass the 100-catch mark in his career mostly spent as the \u201c1B\u201d to Brown\u2019s \u201c1A.\u201d How productive can he be if he starts getting thrown the ball more often? According to TruMedia, Smith ranked 12th in target share last year at 24.4%, while Brown finished 10th at 26.1%. But what if that number were closer to the 30% mark Jaxon Smith-Njigba surpassed last season (35.8%) and Puka Nacua approached (28.5%) in similar schemes geared around a play-action passing game that funnels targets to versatile pass catchers. Those close to Smith believe he\u2019s ready for that workload. Actually, those close to Smith know he\u2019s been not so patiently waiting for this. \u201cSmitty fools everybody with this quiet, chill demeanor,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cInside, there\u2019s the heart of a diva receiver banging in his chest saying, \u2018I want the ball, every time.\u2019 I think he\u2019s got a maturity and a respect for the team, so he goes out there just lunchpail and does the job. Whatever they\u2019re going to ask him, he\u2019s going to be in a position to execute it and do it. But he\u2019s not lacking one ounce of confidence. Whatever anyone says about his body, he feels he\u2019s 6-foot-5, 280.\u201d Eagles wide receiver coach Aaron Moorehead added, \u201cI think he\u2019s always seen himself as a [No.] 1. And I think in this building we\u2019ve always seen him as a one. You just had another guy that was a one. So for him, I think that he feels like it\u2019s just his time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dating back to the spring, there has been palpable internal enthusiasm for what Smith can become in new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,3085,71,70],"class_list":["post-282240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-eagles-news","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}