Pat Leonard: DeVonta Smith is a reminder Eagles’ recent dominance of Giants rivalry starts off the field

The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Giants eight straight times between 2016 and 2020, then tanked their 2020 regular-season finale and kept the Giants out of the playoffs.

The one-sided rivalry needed no more gasoline on the fire, but Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and GM Howie Roseman wanted more. So they took more from the Giants in April’s NFL Draft.

With the Dallas Cowboys on the clock at No. 10, the Giants sitting at No. 11, and the Eagles at No. 12, Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith was just within the Giants’ grasp.

But the Eagles colluded with the Cowboys on a rare inter-NFC East draft day deal to leapfrog the Giants and steal the smooth Smith.

“The rivalry — we’ve talked about the rivalry,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said this week. “We were doing whatever we needed to do to get to the player that we really coveted in that draft. That was DeVonta Smith. I’m sure glad we have him.”

The Giants pivoted, trading back to No. 20 with the Chicago Bears to acquire another 2022 first-round pick and land Florida receiver Kadarius Toney.

Still, defensive coordinator Pat Graham’s reaction to facing Smith twice a year said it all: the Giants wanted him, and now they have to try to stop him.

“He’s tough, he’s physical and his receiving skills are up there with anybody in the league that we’ve seen so far,” Graham said Friday. “Unfortunately we’re going to have to deal with him for whatever many years on his contract in this division.”

The reality is the modern Giants-Eagles rivalry extends well beyond the game played at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. It is living just as fiercely in an offseason roster-building competition that Roseman and the Eagles are winning hands down, time and again.

The Giants’ and Eagles’ player acquisition war could reach a crescendo next spring, as well, if both teams pursue a new franchise quarterback.

The Giants hold two first-round picks in the 2022 draft: their own (at No. 5 right now) and the Bears’ (No. 8). The Eagles hold three: the Dolphins’ (No. 7), their own (No. 11) and the Colts’ (No. 15).

Whether they’re competing to trade for veteran quarterbacks or looking to draft one, these bitter rivals will be at each other’s necks again come April, vying for supremacy that translates to the turf.

Roseman, the Eagles’ GM, has made his share of mistakes and isn’t perfect, but look how quickly he has retooled his team into a higher-scoring, competitive club compared to the Giants’ annual malaise.

Joe Judge used the words “talent” or “talented” six times in one answer on Friday to describe the Eagles’ offensive line, a dominant front five that represents the polar opposite of GM Dave Gettleman’s results through four seasons in East Rutherford.

The Eagles’ defense also ranks first in pass rush win rate (54%) while the Giants’ defense is dead last (29%), per ESPN Stats & Info.

“You look at this roster up there, they’ve really assembled a lot of talent on that roster, and we talk about the success they’re having,” Judge said. “Look, I wouldn’t expect a team with that much talent to have anything but success.”

Then there is Smith, the so-called “Slim Reaper,” who has rattled off 46 catches for 664 yards and four TDs so far, compared to Toney’s 35 catches for 392 yards and zero TDs.

“He’s crafty, he’s athletic,” Giants corner James Bradberry said. “He runs very good routes. He’s just a savvy guy for a young guy in this league. He has some smoothness to him.”

The Eagles have found success going run heavy on offense to play to their strengths, with a dual threat quarterback in Jalen Hurts and the second best run-blocking offensive line in football (75% win rate).

But Smith is gaining steam as a downfield threat, with three TDs in his last three games and yards per catch of 18.4 the last four weeks.

“I think everybody is happy with the direction that the offense is going in,” Smith said Wednesday. “As long as we’re winning games, that’s all that everyone cares about. When your number is called, everybody is ready to make a play.”

Judge on Friday shrugged off the Eagles’ draft day trade for Smith as something the Giants had seen coming. “We had a pretty good idea they were going to do that,” he said.

But the Giants’ head coach acknowledged “you don’t get a lot of those trades” in division over another rival — it was only the sixth Cowboys-Eagles draft-day trade since 1989 — and he raved that Smith is “everything you thought he was going to be in the draft.”

Not that the Giants can’t recover from losing a player like Smith. Getting an extra first-round pick was important for their own future, too.

Still, it was hard enough losing eight straight to the Eagles between 2016-2020 and seven straight to the Cowboys from 2017-2020. Then Philly tanked its finale against Washington to end the Giants’ season (Judge said “there’s nothing from last year that’s going to be relevant on Sunday,” by the way).

Now they have to watch Smith flourish in Philly while Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons — whom the Giants passed on by trading back — is at nine sacks and counting for division-leading Dallas.

It all makes this rivalry, these rivalries, feel so one-sided. It’s all a reminder that the team on the field won’t win these games consistently until the front office starts winning the battles off it.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

The NFL and Rams owner Stan Kroenke will pay $790 million to settle the St. Louis relocation lawsuit, as first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The settlement does not include a promise from the NFL to grant St. Louis an expansion franchise in the future. It was not immediately clear how much Kroenke and the NFL’s 31 other ownership groups would cover individually. This was a point of contention at last month’s owners meetings in Manhattan, when Kroenke angered other owners by indicating he may back out of a promise to cover tens of millions in legal expenses, per ESPN. Kroenke then recently threatened to settle the case only for himself if he didn’t get assurances of help covering costs from the league and other owners, per the Sports Business Journal. So that’s one fire the NFL seemingly has put out. … Speaking of raging fires, the NFL’s officiating crisis continues. Referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew stole the show on Thanksgiving Day, calling the Cowboys and Raiders for a combined 28 penalties worth 276 yards. The Cowboys’ 166 penalty yards were a franchise record. Their 110 penalty yards on third down were the most by any team in a single game since at least 1991, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Corner Anthony Brown’s fourth defensive pass interference, a 33-yard Raiders gain in overtime, set up Vegas’ game-winning field goal. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lamented: “I call it ‘throw-up’ ball. Just throw it out there and get a penalty. This will probably be arguably the most-watched game other than the Super Bowl, and I hated that it got down to just throwing the ball up and getting penalties to get your big plays.” He also referred to the Las Vegas Raiders as “Oakland.” … Jones was correct about the television audience, by the way. CBS announced that the Raiders’ 36-33 overtime win over the Cowboys averaged an estimated 38.531 million viewers, the NFL’s most-watched regular-season game on any network since 1990. The NFL hasn’t had a bigger audience for a regular-season game since Joe Montana’s 49ers beat Phil Simms’ Giants, 7-3, at Candlestick Park on Dec. 3, 1990. ABC drew an estimated average of 41.474 million. … Colts RB Jonathan Taylor’s five rushing TDs against the Bills last week gives him 1,122 rushing yards and 13 rushing TDs, both of which lead the league by a comfortable margin. He will be a legitimate MVP candidate if he continues on or even somewhat close to his current pace. He was a second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin, and yet he’s still a generational talent. Go figure. … The Chiefs’ win over the Cowboys last week vaulted Kansas City to 7-4. They are in first place in the AFC West. Patrick Mahomes is second in the NFL with 3,200 yards. And this is supposed to be their down year? … Bills corner Tre’Davious White’s torn ACL is a major blow to Buffalo’s quest for a Super Bowl berth. Irreplaceable player in what has been one of the league’s best secondaries.

THEY SAID IT

“I do go, ‘Well, what took you so long?’ I would have honestly expected it a long time ago.” — Michael Strahan on Giants waiting too long to retire his No. 92 jersey number this Sunday