DeVonta Smith will play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. He sat out Wednesday's practice, was limited Thursday and practiced fully Friday, and his name is not on the Eagles' final Week 6 injury report. "I'm good," he told reporters after Friday's practice. Get him back into lineups as a WR2. Just don't treat this as the same player you drafted. The quarterback throwing to him has changed.
First, a correction to how this week has been framed. Smith did not miss only the London game. He sat out both Week 4 and Week 5 with the hamstring injury, and he had already tried to play through it in Week 3 at Chicago, where he caught six passes for 65 yards in a 27-7 loss before he apparently aggravated it. A toe injury also showed up on Wednesday's practice report, though it isn't expected to be a problem. So this is his first game in nearly a month, with a hamstring that has given out once already this season.
His role is not the question. With A.J. Brown traded to New England in June, Smith opened 2026 as Philadelphia's clear No. 1 receiver for the first time since his rookie year. The early returns matched that billing. He caught 19 of 27 targets for 235 yards and a touchdown over the first three weeks, a stretch highlighted by a 10-catch, 117-yard game at Tennessee in Week 2. That is roughly nine targets per game, a step up from his 2025 season, when he finished with 77 catches for 1,008 yards and four touchdowns playing beside Brown.
The question is everything around him. Jalen Hurts has been ruled out with a superficial blood clot in his calf. The team first found the clot after Week 4, and a follow-up ultrasound Wednesday showed it had moved. The Eagles have not said how long he will be out. Tanner McKee gets the start. He has played in six NFL games and started two, going 1-1, and this will be the first meaningful start of his career. Philadelphia's depth behind him is thin: Andy Dalton was released last week, before the clot was diagnosed, and the team signed Joe Milton off Dallas' practice squad on Friday.
Saquon Barkley is also out with his own hamstring injury. He left four snaps into Week 4 and has not played since. The Eagles have lost three straight and dropped to 2-3 when Jacksonville won 19-17 in London on a 57-yard field goal as time expired. An offense missing its starting quarterback and its lead back has fewer ways to move the ball, and that can cut in two directions for Smith. Volume may funnel to the most trusted receiver on the field. A backup passer making his first real start may also produce fewer total yards and fewer scoring chances for everyone.
The matchup helps. Carolina is without both of its starting perimeter cornerbacks, including Jaycee Horn, who is on injured reserve with a quad injury. McKee is a pocket passer, and a secondary playing backups is a friendly first assignment. Smith also won't be the only healthy target back, since Dontayvion Wicks (hamstring) and Hollywood Brown (ankle) both finished the week with full practices and are set to play. Smith's share should still lead the room. It may just not be as concentrated as it was in September.
Here is the honest outlook. Smith is a start in 12-team leagues on volume and matchup, but the editor's original framing, that his return changes nothing, doesn't hold. Before the injury he was a WR2 with weekly upside, catching passes from a Pro Bowl quarterback. On Sunday he is a WR2 with a lower ceiling and a less certain floor, coming off a twice-tweaked hamstring and catching passes from a backup. If you have two clearly better receivers with stable quarterback play, Smith is a reasonable flex rather than a locked-in starter. Everyone else should play him and watch how McKee spreads the ball. That will tell you more about Smith's next few weeks than the injury report did.