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Legendary Former Eagle Za’Darius Smith Has Unretired
Published:
According to multiple reports, citing the agent:
Honestly? Completely forgot about this guy. The Eagles signed him to a incentive-laden one-year deal worth $9 million at the start of 2025, then he played in five games before retiring on October 10th.
Final stats: 10 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 stuffs, 3 quarterback hits. The game log shows a half sack and a couple of TFL against the Chiefs in Week 2, and then a sack and three tackles against Denver three weeks later, when the Birds blew a 17-3 home lead and allowed that jerk Sean Payton to walk out of Lincoln Financial Field with a win. Gross. Then Smith played in the road loss against the Giants and that was it.
The beats reported at the time, via SOURCES, that retirement was a personal decision and had nothing to do with the Birds organ-eye-zation. Smith was playing 30-ish snaps on average per game, which was anywhere from 30 to 40% on the defensive side of the ball. Now he goes to Atlanta to… probably not win much down there. But good luck to him.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com