Former Pittsburgh Steelers WR Chase Claypool being traded to the Chicago Bears, suffice it to say, did not work out for him. Nor did it work out for the Bears. And the Miami Dolphins have taken a downturn since acquiring him as well.
But the Baltimore Ravens acquiring ILB Roquan Smith from the Bears has worked out well for both player and team thus far—never mind the fact that he got a huge payday from the Ravens. He has been instrumental in turning them back into one of the best defenses in the league and is helping position them for a title run. For which he is most grateful.
Traded a year ago yesterday, Smith has recorded 173 tackles with 10 tackles for loss in 18 games as a Raven. He has 3.5 sacks, one interception, and eight passes defensed, and is well on his way to another first-team All-Pro nod.
He’s also gone 12-6 in those 18 games in comparison to 29-34 as a Bear.
“It was bittersweet for me, just knowing Chicago and rightfully so. But if I would’ve stayed there, honestly, wouldn’t have been able to compete for a title anytime soon”, he told Albert Breer for Sports Illustrated recently.
“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”, he added. “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”.
After the trade deadline last year, the Bears completely bottomed out, ending the season on a 10-game losing streak. They also lost the first four games of the 2023 season and remain 2-7 on the year, having lost three of their past four.
The Ravens, meanwhile, are 7-2 and tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the best record in the AFC. Baltimore has the first-ranked defense in scoring and second in yards, allowing the second-fewest passing yards and eighth-fewest yards on the ground, even while being in the middle of the back in takeaways.
Smith and fellow linebacker Patrick Queen have largely been the heart and soul of that unit this year, getting surprisingly strong contributions from a variety of sources. Justin Madubuike has 7.5 sacks on the season, and Kyle Van Noy has five as they try to get their young pedigreed pass rushers back into the mix.
For as good as the Ravens are on offense, their defense has been probably the biggest reason they have won seven games already. But it is the total package that is catapulting them back into contender status, scoring nearly twice as many points as they allow. The Bears, meanwhile, are allowing more points than even the Ravens score. At 2-7, they are quite the inverse, for which Roquan Smith couldn’t be more grateful, now at a point in his career in which the opportunity to win is paramount—and which he doesn’t feel he would have had any time soon if that trade had never happened.
