Roquan Smith Buries The Bears One Last Time: "It Just Makes Me So Happy Just Knowing My Career Is Not Going Down The Drain"

Woof.

Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the Roquan Smith trade to the Ravens, so Albert Breer over at Sports Illustrated took the opportunity to do a post-mortem with some spicy quotes from the man himself.

Obviously the quote above is the spiciest. Here's the full quote with a little more context.

“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.” 

Now obviously the Bears don't need any more dirt thrown on their grave on a number of fronts. From ownership to player personnel to stadium issues to just a goddamn pervasive level of ineptitude across the board... by no means did Roquan have to go in like that. He did anyway.

The real message from Roquan and that article as a whole, however, is how much he loves Baltimore. He has fully leaned in and embraced what it means to be a Raven, and the organization and city loves him back.

Everything has changed since that trade. Of course, he's an awesome player and that addition speaks for itself. But it's everything else he brings to the table that has made a world of difference for the Ravens. He makes everybody else better around him. Patrick Queen has been a man possessed since he joined the unit. Kyle Hamilton has continued a serious upward trajectory and gets to do what he does best. The pass rush has improved. The defensive run game has been dominant. Fewer broken coverages have occurred.

Advertisement

Most of those things speak to his presence as a leader. The Ravens have had some really good defenses over the past decade that have maintained the legacy of Baltimore as a defense-first organization, but they just haven't had that special sauce since Ray and Reed (and to a lesser extent Sizzle) left town. No disrespect to a physical guy like Marlon Humphrey, but Roquan brings a championship attitude that you just can't measure. He gets it. 

He gets the building and his guys going every Sunday and it's been that way since the minute he walked in the door. He instantly commanded the respect and attention of the guys around him and I'm confident that if Lamar was healthy in January that we roll thru the Bengals on Wild Card weekend and both the national perception of them and us are different going into the season. 

But that's ok. Now we're rightfully being respected on the same level as that team over there and we have the opportunity to take charge of the division over the next week with home games against Cleveland and Cincinnati. Building is going to be buzzing in a big way.

I'm declaring that Thursday Night Football game to be Banksgiving. That's where we take back our reputation and stake M&T Bank Stadium as one of the best home field advantages in the league and leave the division in the dust. Roquan will be one of the biggest parts of that and I can't freakin wait.

So fucking glad that guy is on our side.