PHILADELPHIA — A lot of people have been wondering whether or not DeVonta Smith would play this week. The conversation peppered sports talk shows, headlines, press conferences, and Smith's own inbox as fans flooded his social media with countless direct messages to ask if he'd be on the field or if a hamstring injury from two weeks ago would sideline him.

DeVonta Smith will be on the field this afternoon when the Carolina Panthers take on the Philadelphia Eagles, but he ignored the messages. He's gotten good at it over the years, responding only when he feels it's necessary to steer someone in the right direction.

Because the DeVonta Smith fans have been messaging all week won't be in an Eagles uniform catching passes as a Philly receiver. He'll be on the Carolina sideline, in a Panthers' hat, helping talk through the Week 6 game with his defensive backs unit.

See, there are two DeVonta Smiths in the NFL, spelled the same way and everything, "down to the capital V," interjects the Panthers' Smith. Their lives have run remarkably parallel from playing at Alabama in the same era (the Eagles version was there 2017-20, the Panthers version from 2021-24 before playing his final season at Notre Dame) to making it to the league.

Sunday will be the first time they find themselves on a field together, but not nearly the first time they'll cross each other's path.

Before this story goes any further, let's set some ground rules so we don't have to clarify who is who every time. This is an established practice between the two, and teammates who have played with both have done it for years.

"I mean, I don't call the defensive one Smitty," Panthers receiver John Metchie III shrugged when asked how he differentiates between the two DeVonta Smiths.

"I call him Smitty," Bryce Young began, then caught himself and clarified, "Sorry, I call DeVonta Smith for the Eagles, Smitty, and I call DeVonta Smith for us Tae."

The receiver, Smitty, played at Alabama before the Eagles drafted him with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. That same season, at the college level, Alabama welcomed a corner, DeVonta Smith. That means both played with Young and Metchie at the college level, with the DB now also sharing a locker room at the pro level.

The first time Metchie saw the 2021 Bama roster, he had to do a double-take.

"That's like if next year somebody on defense is John Metchie. I'd be like, 'Hold on, is that me?'"

Despite the fact the defensive DeVonta Smith had been known by Smitty his whole life — "obviously my folks and my family called me Smitty too" — Young, a team captain that season in Tuscaloosa, and the Tide leadership had a plan to quickly eliminate any confusion. It was based on a hierarchy system with which no one could disagree.

"It was tough because obviously Smitty just won the Heisman, so we all just knew him as Smitty," Young shared of what went into the decision. "So it was like, you got to be something else. You can go by DeVonta, you can go by Tae; but the first day he's there, I was like, your name's not going to be Smitty.

"It was just made clear from the beginning. It was just, 6 was always Smitty, so it was like anything else is fine, but that one," he said, pointing around the corner from his locker in the Panthers' locker room to where DeVonta Smith's locker sits, "can't be that."

It was tough for Smith to hear; that'd been his nickname his whole life. But he understood.

"You got to earn that," he remembers thinking. "I've always had a fire lit under me. But that lit more of a fire to just earn it from them guys, the guys I looked up to that are all in the NFL playing currently today.

"But yeah, I definitely had to earn my name, which is crazy. Like it's my name, you feel me? It's a respect thing; I get it, though. He played with them. They met me as Tae."

Over the years, fans who aren't aware of the difference between Smitty and Tae have understandably gotten them confused. When he was at Alabama, he would receive fan mail meant for the Heisman winner all the time. Since then, he's continued to receive texts, emails, and other fan mail from fans and companies who somehow found a database, saw his name, and assumed it was the receiver.

The official NFL account regularly tags him on social media in pictures and highlight reels from Philadelphia games.

"Yes, the official NFL account will tag my name over his name, and I'll have to unpin it," cackled Tae.

"His (handle) is his name, or our name. And then mine is @bright.future.5. That has nothing to do with our name! But our name is in my bio, so you can see it; if you type it up, it's going to be his to come up first and then mine."

Smith will untag himself, considering it the right thing to do, even though it could bring him engagement. He'll respond to certain messages and try to forward along fan mail to Smitty, or at least let the sender know they intended it for someone else.

It's led to an interesting online relationship between the two, as the Eagles' Smitty told reporters this week, "I've spoken to him through social media and things like that."

Last year, a box arrived for Tae, filled with PSD (Palm Springs Design) items, an undergarment company that leans on professional athletes for promotion.

"I don't know how they got the address or anything like that, but I got sent PSD underwear," shared Smith. "Like a boatload of PSD underwear and the spokesperson for PSD underwear, I'm guessing he was a huge fan of the Eagles, so he had sent a note and was like, 'Please sign this, follow me on Instagram. This is my number.'

"He wrote his number on there, and I just texted him like, 'Hey, this came to me. I'm DeVonta Smith, but this is not the one that it was intended to go to.' So, he wrote back and said, 'My bad, my dog. Roll Tide,' because he still knew that I went to Alabama as well. He just said, 'Just keep it.' So it was crazy."

But just like he did after that first conversation with Bryce Young at Alabama, and like he's done every day since, the confusion only serves as motivation.

There is no Heisman in the NFL, so Tae Smith knows if he wants to be Smitty again, he'll have to earn it. He dreams of a day when he's on the active roster and gets to face off as the corner guarding the dynamic receiver.

"I think I'll earn it if we play each other and I'm guarding him, and I shut him down," he said, smiling. "I'll feel like I've earned it, and I think the internet, the world, would think I would earn it."

That won't happen today, but as he stands on the sideline, a rookie still fighting for his space on this Panthers' practice squad and team, watching the other DeVonta Smith on the field, it'll remind him what he's fighting for.

The right to be himself.

"I think you should use a lot of things as motivation," he shrugged. "A lot of people should; it should fuel you in the right way. So that's how I've always been. That's just how I'm wired; I get fueled off of negative things, you know, that way it may bring other people down, but that just makes me go harder."

Of course, Tae plays for the Carolina Panthers — Smitty wasn't really available anyway.

Unless he wanted to take it up with Steve Smith Sr..