Packers Must Grapple With Motivated Za’Darius Smith

“I respect the crap out of Z as a player,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said in taking the high road on Wednesday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Athletes will dig underneath every nook and cranny to find motivation. Minnesota Vikings pass rusher Za’Darius Smith apparently doesn’t have to dig too deep or look too far into his past to find an edge for Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers.

Signed by the Packers in free agency in 2019, Smith posted two years of elite production with a total of 26 sacks. However, in his mind, everything changed last season.

He missed most of training camp with a back injury, tried to play through the pain and had surgery after a dismal opening performance against the Saints. He finally returned for the playoffs, recording a sack on the opening series but otherwise making no impact in 19 snaps in the loss to the 49ers.

The whole ordeal, from how he was treated during his absence to his release before the start of free agency, left a sour taste. In an interview with Tyler Dunne’s Go Long, Smith said he was treated like a “nobody” after he returned to Green Bay following surgery.

“I brought the culture. I helped change this shit,” Smith said. “Why the f*** am I the one being treated like that?”

Packers coach Matt LaFleur took the high road when asked about a high-level player who was not voted a team captain by his teammates before the season and disappeared for about two months after the surgery.

“I respect the crap out of Z as a player,” LaFleur said on Wednesday. “He busted his butt, did a lot of great things. I think we may have a different perspective of how things transpired. So, I’ll just leave it at that.”

After being released by the Packers, Smith was set to sign with Baltimore – the team that drafted him in 2015. Ultimately, he backed out of that three-year deal so he could sign a four-year deal with Green Bay’s NFC North rivals.

“I played one year of high school football,” Smith said. “For me to be where I’m at today, that’s how you know I love the game. I put my all into it. That’s why I felt the way I did with Green Bay — I gave that shit my all. I put my blood, sweat… I put my back on the f--king line. I put everything. And that Year 3, I was treated bad. That’s why I’m here now. So, I can play them twice a year.”

Healthy again, he’ll be chasing Aaron Rodgers in Sunday’s Week 1 showdown.

Regardless of whether or not the Packers actually treated Smith poorly is irrelevant. Smith believes he was treated poorly. That’s enough to add a little extra juice to his Vikings debut.

“Yeah, I’m sure he will,” LaFleur said. “He’s one of the premier pass-rushers in this league, and he’s a challenge because he presents problems on the outside and his versatility as a player where they can kick him inside and match him up over guards or centers or wherever they want to put him.”

There’s no doubt Smith will be fired up to face his former team. There’s a lot of doubt on whether he’ll be attacking offensive tackles David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins or backups Yosh Nijman and Royce Newman.

“He’s an elite-level player in this league,” LaFleur said. “Anytime you’re going up against that and then you’ve got [Danielle] Hunter on the other side from him potentially, that does cause for some [restless] nights.”