Maason Smith’s life changed in NOLA. Now, Falcons DL eyes homecoming redemption

FLOWERY BRANCH — They know him as Tooka, a nickname started by his father with a meaning he still doesn’t know. They remember him as the state’s best player in high school, the hometown hero, the kid who had an extra “A” placed in his name at birth so he didn’t match with a family friend’s newborn.

And on Monday night, they’ll see him make his homecoming in the same stadium where his life — and career — changed.

Falcons defensive tackle Maason Smith, a native of Houma, Louisiana, some 45 minutes south of New Orleans, supplied 20-to-30 tickets for his friends and family. His mother, a longtime Saints fan, will wear Smith’s No. 92 jersey. His grandmother, also a lifelong Saints fan, will watch from home in newly acquired Falcons gear.

Yet as Smith and the Falcons (1-2) prepare to face the Saints (1-2) at 8:15 p.m. on “Monday Night Football,” the 6-foot-5, 306-pounder is left to grapple with all the emotions.

It’s his first NFL game in Louisiana and his first time back in Caesars Superdome since an early September night in 2022, when he was the 18-year-old phenom, the preseason All-American, the rising stud who tore his ACL and spent the rest of the game with his arms on crutches and his heart broken.

“That’s really probably the biggest change in my career,” Smith told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Before then, the direction was a lot different than what it was after. To that point, I never really had any adversity, bro. It was just a hard time for me, man. It made me learn a lot about myself.

“I grew up.”

Now, that grown-up is coming home — in a different place, with a different view, and owning a different nickname: Bottom of the Boot. It’s a nod to his roots, and on Monday night, he hopes to give those Saints-turned-Falcons fans, a transition often made only by those required to for family ties, quite the show in primetime.

***

Smith remembers watching Drew Brees and Marques Colston play pitch and catch every Sunday, mowing down defenses and electrifying New Orleans along the way.

But Smith wasn’t a Saints fan as a kid. His father followed Peyton Manning, a New Orleans native, and attached his fandom to the Indianapolis Colts and, eventually, the Denver Broncos. Where Manning went, so did Smith’s Sunday viewing pleasure.

Smith, however, spent more time watching college football, particularly in high school. He chose to stay local at LSU, where he started as a freshman, had three sacks in his second game and, before tearing his ACL, blossomed into one of the nation’s most promising young defensive linemen.

The injury brought him into hard times. He leaned on his mother, who was with him during surgery. He leaned on hometown friends. And he leaned on his LSU teammates, including Harold Perkins Jr., a linebacker who now joins him in the Falcons’ locker room.

Perkins, who tore his ACL the following year, remembers those days, too.

“There’s just stuff from behind closed doors that people don’t see,” Perkins said. “Just checking on him, making sure he’s good mentally. He needed time to himself. I let him have it, and then I checked on him now and again.”

Smith returned to the field the following year more mature. He started all 12 games, tallying 4 ½ tackles for loss and 2 ½ sacks, and went to the NFL the year after. The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Smith in the second round at No. 48 overall.

But Nate Ollie watched, and thought, and dreamed. He was the Houston Texans’ assistant defensive line coach,

“I loved him coming out,” Ollie said. “Loved his game coming out. He was young, didn’t play a lot of football, had some injuries and things like that. But we were always thinking over there, like, maybe we can get this guy in the attack-style front (and) we can unlock some potential out of him.”

Jacksonville never quite fit Smith. He played in 27 games with 10 starts and collected three sacks, three tackles for loss and four quarterback hits, all in his rookie year.

The Falcons bet on his upside this spring, swapping fellow 2024 second-round pick Ruke Orhorhoro for Smith, who was on a golf course when he heard the news. When Smith joined the Falcons, he said he felt “celebrated, not tolerated.”

But his two-year stint with the Jaguars led to the connection that may help drive a breakthrough third season. It gave him Joey Bergles.

***

In his first two offseasons as an NFL player, Smith didn’t have a day-by-day plan. He promises he had a plan, but not a comprehensive one. This spring, he chatted with Jaguars defensive lineman Arik Armstead, a 12-year veteran, about training programs.

Armstead suggested Smith work with Bergles, a Dallas-based strength coach who trains several NFL players. Smith took his advice.

For the first time in his life, Smith had structure from Monday through Friday. His body benefited.

“I think it’s just for me, just getting over the little things, getting a little bit stronger in certain areas,” Smith said. “And just staying on it. Not allowing myself to get big, keeping my weight where it’s supposed to be and just growing my body as a whole. I’m 23 years old, so I’ve still got some growing to do.”

Smith emphasized more things in the weight room. He added more power to his upper half and more stability to his lower — more than he’s felt post-ACL tear.

“Really just static movements,” Smith said. “I’ve always been explosive, so really just the starting and stopping, having strength through that, striking or just getting people off my chest. Lower leg strength — coming off the ACL in college, I never really had the time to really grow my lower body back, so really just being deliberate on lower body and everything like that.”

Smith also worked with a new pass-rush coach, Marcus Howard, who trains various NFL standouts. Howard first learned of Smith through Travon Walker, a former Georgia standout and the Jaguars’ starting defensive end who works with Howard in the offseason.

They worked hand usage, did agility drills and, for several weeks in the heat of Georgia’s summer, Smith blew Howard away with his footwork and body control. He’s a 6-foot-5, 306-pound defensive tackle who matched defensive ends and linebackers in athletic drills.

“The first time I trained him, I said, ‘This guy is explosive,’” Howard told the AJC. “He has the knack and the awareness of pass rushing. The awareness and the understanding of, like, how to pass rush and where to put my hands and my feet at, and this and that — oh, man, it’s second to none.

“I mean, I think he’s about to explode.”

Howard trained several of the Falcons’ defensive tackles over the past handful of years, and he left this summer with the belief Smith was more pass rush-ready than all of them. His theory earned validation during a phone call with Falcons outside linebacker James Pearce Jr. early during training camp.

The two were chatting about the first week of camp, and Howard mentioned he liked the Falcons’ defense and several of the players on it. Pearce chimed in.

“That ... Maason Smith,” Pearce told Howard, “I think he’s a dog.”

Howard’s response: “I told you.”

***

While Perkins wrapped up his phone call with Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham, president of football Matt Ryan, coach Kevin Stefanski and the rest of the team’s staff in the immediate aftermath of being drafted, he received another call.

It was Smith.

“The first thing he told me was, ‘I’m happy you’re coming here, whooptie woo, I’ve been in that ... by myself and quiet. Now, I’ve got my brother with me,’” a smiling Perkins told the AJC. “And for me, it just felt like a bittersweet moment, because you don’t know which team you would get picked to. It’s the draft.

“Just for me to come in and be with my brother — ... that’s nothing but God, for real.”

Perkins’ presence helped Smith find his footing while acclimating to a new city, roster and scheme. The Falcons’ attack-style front requires defensive linemen to forget much of what they’ve been taught their entire life, be it reading blocks or prioritizing technique.

Ollie, now the Falcons’ defensive line coach, prioritizes his players getting off the line of scrimmage. He tells them to adopt a “dark-room mentality,” which essentially entails firing off the snap like they’re running through a dark room — fast and fearless. It removes all thinking.

Smith has embraced it, and coupled with Perkins and a strong support staff, he’s playing with perhaps his clearest headspace as a professional.

“Just being around a group of people that care about him,” Ollie said, “I think that’s important, too.”

The Falcons value Smith’s size, length and explosiveness. He’s a unique specimen, big and strong but undeniably explosive. And the Falcons feel he’s still scratching the surface of what he can ultimately become.

“‘Maas’ is really starting to learn how to play box and how to explode and how to get out of his stance,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said, “and how to put all his amazing stuff that he has in his body on full display.”

Smith has already established himself as a key part of a young, ascending defensive line. A starter in each of the Falcons’ first three games, Smith has five quarterback pressures, which ranks fifth on the team, according to Next Gen Stats.

But he enters New Orleans still searching for his first splash play. The Falcons feel a breakthrough is coming, and Caesars Superdome still owes Smith from that unforgettable Sunday night four years ago.

That building, and that city, will forever be where Smith grew up and where his life changed. Monday night in New Orleans is the intersection of it all — his past, his present and the folks who supported him through it.