The Best Is Yet to Come As Roquan Smith and the Ravens Unlock Their Identity

One year after being traded from the Bears, the linebacker is finding his groove in Baltimore, just as this season’s team is, too.

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Tuesday was the first anniversary of Roquan Smith’s trade from the Bears, and after the Ravens’ bludgeoning of the Seahawks on Sunday, the linebacker could finally give himself the space to reflect on just how different things are for him now.

Baltimore might have this season’s two most impressive wins—the one two weeks ago over Detroit, and now this one over a really solid (and hot) Seahawks team—and Smith is at the heart of all of it, now ensconced in a tradition that seemed to come back alive right as he was getting his feet underneath him as a Raven.

Smith is part of a Baltimore defense that leads the league in sacks :: Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports

So yeah, Sunday was about beating Seattle 37–3. But it was also, for Smith, about that all that’s in front of him, and where a calendar year of transition has put him as the page is turned to the back nine of the NFL regular season.

“Man, it’s pretty crazy thinking back to when I was initially traded,” Smith says from the winning locker room. “It was bittersweet for me, just knowing Chicago and rightfully so. But if I would’ve stayed there, honestly, [I] wouldn’t have been able to compete for a title anytime soon. And then when I came over here, it took me a while, like a couple of weeks, to really realize how stacked this team was, as well as how many good people there are on this team, and how they just bring in truly good people.

“And when I just think about it from the perspective of having the opportunity to compete for one year in and year out with the talent we have. Man, it makes me so happy, just knowing my career is not going down the drain, in the sense of playing somewhere where I’m not truly competing for a title.”

The Ravens, at 7–2, are clear contenders, and Smith has emerged as a big reason why.

At his press conference last Friday, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he sees Smith as someone who has strong beliefs and isn’t scared by how he’s perceived. And it makes sense, then, that a player who was once the No. 8 pick—and was handed the torch that Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher once carried with the Bears—has been so comfortable fitting in as the newest piece in the Ravens’ defensive machine.

Smith’s game Sunday was workmanlike: five tackles, not much flash. But what mattered to him, in the end, was that the plan had been carried out. That plan, as he explained it to me, was to force the Seahawks’ offense to work for every yard and not let anything happen over the top.

Mission accomplished. Seattle had just three possessions of over 10 plays all day.

“Just the way we played and put a complete game together, they had maybe two explosives, if that,” Smith says. “Being able to just flush that, and when they got in the red zone, we put the fire out right away. … We just stood there and put our face in the fan and said, Whatever’s coming and who’s going, we’re gonna all be ready for whatever. That’s what I’m most proud about, the way we played, four complete quarters as a team, and especially as a defense.”

The Seahawks finished the game with 151 yards and six first downs. The Ravens’ offense rolled to nearly 300 yards on the ground.

It was, in so many ways, vintage Baltimore.

And afterward, that was one perception that Smith wasn’t afraid to lean into—he’s talked with Ray Lewis and other alums of the franchise about what it means to them, and him, to be a Raven. So if someone saw what happened Sunday as a Baltimore-style win, Smith takes that as high praise.

Smith had spent four full seasons with the Bears before being traded :: Brent Skeen/USA TODAY Sports

“Honestly, man, it means the world to me, being a Raven,” Smith says. “And how they came and got me when I was in Chicago and just all the love they showed me throughout my time here, I just only imagine it’s gonna grow even bigger. So when I think about it from that perspective, I pride myself on playing until the whistle, playing every single play as hard as I can. But like just being here, there’s something about that makes you want to go even harder, with all the legends that came before me, like Ed [Reed], Ray [Lewis], Bart [Scott] …

“When I just think about it from that perspective, man, it makes me proud just knowing that I’m playing behind such a historic tradition. And guys that was well before [me], man. How they set the standard for being a Raven. I believe it’s playing lights out on the defensive side of the ball … not giving the offense time to breathe. Smothering them. And when they come up for a breath, you take them right back down. I feel like that’s what being a Raven is all about.”

On Sunday, after what the Ravens did to the Seahawks, and what they did to the Lions two weeks ago, Smith could truly feel like a Raven himself. And not only feel like one, but be grateful for it, with all that’s ahead of him now.

“That’s something I really pride myself on and just coming here,” Smith says. “We live it every single day. And it’s from top to bottom. And I just couldn’t be more excited just to be a part of a great organization that I am.”

Safe to say, they’re happy to have him. And that just as it is for Smith, for the team, the best might still be yet to come.