The Bears and Ravens are similar in some respects. They have two of football’s most athletically gifted quarterbacks — Justin Fields and Lamar Jackson — and their offenses are built around their signal callers’ talents accordingly. The two franchises just pulled off a massive deal roughly 24 hours before the end of the 2022 NFL trade deadline.
Baltimore made the plunge for some defensive help and has acquired All-Pro level linebacker Roquan Smith. All the Ravens had to do to get Smith’s services was to give the Bears a 2023 second-rounder, a 2023 fifth-rounder, and linebacker A.J. Klein. The Bears trading Smith wasn’t necessarily a surprise, given his testy contract situation from the offseason. The Ravens being the other team at the end of that move is … kind of shocking?
From one of the most blatant tank jobs in modern pro football being orchestrated to a tee in Chicago to the Ravens trying to fight the AFC elite with more defense (I mean, I get it), let’s break down all the ins and outs of this agreement between the Bears and Ravens.
The details
Bears get: A 2023 second-round pick, a 2023 fifth-round pick, LB A.J. Klein
Ravens get: LB Roquan Smith
After a frustrating summer of long-term contract negotiations, Chicago moves on with a 2nd rounder and a fifth-rounder coming back. Meanwhile, Baltimore acquires a defensive leader and star defender. https://t.co/Rfo70rlGUt
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 31, 2022
Full terms: A 2 and a 5 and AJ Klein for Roquan Smith and his salary. https://t.co/cGecczkLD7
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 31, 2022
Baltimore Ravens
Without any other context, the Ravens just acquired a two-time Second-Team All-Pro linebacker in Smith. He’ll slot in seamlessly alongside Patrick Queen and form what is easily one of the league’s best coverage linebacking duos. Having three-down linebackers who can run and cover is a luxury in a game predicated on defending the pass. And it also gives you a distinct advantage — not many teams have even one linebacker who can run and cover.
In a tough slog of an AFC, the Ravens can lean on Smith as one of their defensive cornerstones as he potentially tries to improve what is the NFL’s current third-worst pass defense. The best way to fight fire — Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, etc. — is by getting a flame extinguisher, not with fire. Smith won’t tilt the field in the Ravens’ favor against these heavyweight quarterbacks by himself, but he will give them an improved defensive integrity that might be the difference in a big playoff game when/if any of them have a poor outing.
On the flip side, I don’t understand the Ravens getting all willy-nilly with a high-end Day 2 pick and mid-Day 3 selection for what is a rental. Smith is currently set to be an unrestricted free agent in March. Part of the reason the Bears dealt him was that they didn’t want to compensate a player who reportedly wanted to be the NFL’s highest-paid off-ball linebacker. And the Ravens — currently with $2.6 million in cap space, per Over The Cap — will give Smith that kind of deal? Yeah, I don’t buy it.
Even with some creative financial finagling in the offseason, and even if Smith’s long-term price will probably be lower after struggling to adjust to Matt Eberflus’s 4-3 defense in Chicago, the Ravens effectively just traded a second and fifth-rounder for a half-year of an off-ball linebacker. That’s … a lot and is frankly quite puzzling. Eric DeCosta is one of football’s premier executives. For the life of me, I can’t vibe with his rationale here.
Grade: C
Chicago Bears
It was hard to discern what rookie GM Ryan Poles’ plan was for the Bears over the first couple of months of the season. With the way Justin Fields has blossomed lately, it’s now evident that Chicago will do everything in its power to tear down anything that isn’t part of their next competitive core and can’t help Fields be a better quarterback. Given that Smith didn’t fit the latter niche (by definition, as a defender) and was seeking compensation the Bears were never going to give him (putting him in the former niche as well) — his trade should be a no-brainer from Chicago’s perspective.
In the coming days, there’ll be a lot of discussion about how the Bears have hurt themselves in the short term. After all, the Cowboys just gashed up a Chicago defense that provided little-to-no resistance. Without Smith in the fold, that’s not likely to get better in November and December. If anything, third-down defense and pass-rush pressure will be more of an adventure than ever on the West end of Lake Michigan.
At the same time, it’s obvious the Bears aren’t as concerned with on-field results (meaning wins and losses) through the rest of 2022. They dealt away Smith because they weren’t going to let him take up a minimum of one-sixth of their slated $120-million-plus salary cap space in 2023 and because a valuable second and fifth-rounder can be potential pieces that help elevate Fields — their top path to being a Super Bowl contender in the future. (They might even turn around and use these picks to get a playmaker for their young quarterback before this trade deadline concludes. Gasp!)
Even better, when you take a macro look at this situation, the Bears will likely continue pulling out all the stops to make Fields comfortable, as they have in the past few weeks. That means their offense, which just cut up two of the NFL’s elite defenses in the Patriots and Cowboys, will continue to churn along. At the same time, because they won’t stop anyone, the Bears are probably cementing themselves near the top of the 2023 draft. And when a quarterback-needy team or three comes calling in the spring, they can start pitting them against each other to get the highest possible king’s ransom that will let them further build a complete roster around Fields. In an ideal world.
We are watching one of the NFL’s clearest front-office tank efforts in a long time in Chicago. With the way Fields has played lately and with Poles and Co.’s orchestrated flexibility for a concrete plan as a complement, who knows? It just might work.
Grade: A
