When initial characterizations of the recent arrest of Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. for speeding and reckless driving began to spread on social media, multiple accounts pegged his alleged speed at 137 miles per hour. Which seemed too high.
As it turns out, it was.
Via Tim McManus of ESPN, the Twiggs County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that Smith was allegedly driving 135 miles per hour.
Smith was driving in an area with a 70 mph speed limit.
The 2023 first-round pick posted bond shortly after the arrest. A court date has not yet been set.
It’s a ridiculously high rate of speed. It’s almost cartoonish. And even though there was no accident, it’s another example of a situation in which an NFL player has driven at the kind of speed that could easily get himself or someone else killed.
The league has yet to take the problem as seriously as it deals with off-field misconduct. And it probably won’t happen until one of these incidents results in the death of another person.
Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice was suspended six games for a street racing incident that resulted in multiple injuries. If no one had been injured, Rice surely would have ended up with a lighter punishment.
But the outcome isn’t the problem; it’s the behavior. Every time a player drives that fast, he’s playing Russian roulette with a two-ton bullet.
If the league is going to impose standards on a player’s actions away from work, this is an area that cries out for something more aggressive. Because it will send the kind of message that the players currently aren’t receiving.
Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. recently was arrested in Georgia for reckless driving and speeding.
At a time when unconfirmed accounts of the arrest were circulating on social media, E.J. Smith of PHLY Sports has confirmed that the mugshot of Smith is real. CBS affiliate WMAZ-TV also has confirmed the arrest.
The first account of the incident apparently came from The Georgia Gazette, which appears not to be an actual publication but a repository of arrest records and mugshots. The online entry includes Smith’s mugshot, his full name (Nolan Sental Smith), the date of the arrest (May 15, 2026) and the charges: “speeding in excess of maximum limits” and reckless driving.
Although various social-media accounts claim Smith was driving 137 miles per hour in a 70-mph zone, we have yet to find clear, reliable evidence of that specific allegation.
Smith was a first-round pick in the 2023 draft. He went to college at Georgia. The Bulldogs football program has had multiple incidents involving players who were cited for driving at excessive speed. Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter, also a first-round pick in the 2023 draft, pleaded no contest in April 2023 to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing as a result of a January 2023 crash that resulted in the deaths of two people.
Eagles second-round pick Eli Stowers has signed his first NFL contract.
The team announced that Stowers finalized his four-year deal with the team on Monday. The tight end is the seventh member of the team’s 2026 draft class to agree to his contract.
Third-round offensive tackle Markel Bell is the only draft pick who is not yet under contract.
Stowers had 62 catches for 769 yards and four touchdowns at Vanderbilt last season. The former quarterback then impressed at the Scouting Combine by setting records for a tight end in the vertical leap and broad jump.
Dallas Goedert and Grant Calcaterra are the top returning tight ends in Philadelphia. They also signed Johnny Mundt and Stone Smartt as free agents earlier in the offseason.
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Rams and Seahawks played three nail-biters during the 2025 season and the NFL is banking on another one on Christmas night.
The matchup of NFC West teams will cap a three-game slate on Christmas this year. The Friday night game on December 25 will take place in Seattle and it will be broadcast by Fox.
Los Angeles won 21-19 at home last November, but lost 38-37 in overtime in Seattle later in the regular season. The final meeting between the clubs came in the NFC Championship Game and was a 31-27 Seahawks win.
Netflix will kick off the day’s games with a doubleheader that starts with the Packers visiting the Bears at 1 p.m. ET. The Bills will be in Denver at 4:30 p.m. ET in a rematch of last season’s divisional round game that the Broncos won in overtime.
With Christmas Eve falling on a Thursday, there will also be a game on Amazon Prime Video that night. The Eagles will travel to Houston to face the Texans, so all four games around the Christmas holiday will feature matchups of teams that were in the playoffs last season.
