Baltimore Ravens restructure Roquan Smith’s contract, add cap space

The Baltimore Ravens have cleared $4.875 million in cap space by restructuring the contract of star linebacker Roquan Smith, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports.

Before the move, the Ravens were about $3.8 million over the cap with all of their contracts on the books. General manager Eric DeCosta noted he had a plan to get under the cap by the start of the regular season on Thursday, and this was apparently part of that plan.

“We have some flexibility to make some moves and probably next week we’ll be within the cap,” DeCosta told reporters Thursday. “We can do a lot of different things. We’ve been pretty conservative. I’m fortunate that I have (vice president of football administration) Nick Matteo, who’s a great salary cap guy, and (consultant) Pat Moriarty, who’s kind of the conciliarity of the salary cap guys. We’re in good shape up there and we’ll have a good plan.”

The Ravens are now within the cap, but barely. DeCosta understandably likes to have some extra cap space for midseason trades, and to get it, he’ll have to make a few more moves. Maybe another restructure, maybe an extension, we’ll have to wait and see.

Smith, 27, has been an absolute monster since arriving in Baltimore at the 2022 trade deadline. In 25 games with the Ravens, the Georgia native has amassed 244 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss and eight passes defensed. He comes off his second straight first-team All-Pro selection and even earned a few Defensive Player of the Year votes last season.

This season, Smith has a new partner in crime in Trenton Simpson and a new defensive coordinator in Zach Orr, but his confidence in the defense remains extremely high.

“I think every year is different, honestly, and every year, every team is special, and this defense is special in its own way,” Smith told reporters Sunday. “(We’re) not focusing on last year (or) how (former defensive coordinator) Mike (Macdonald) did things, but I’m very excited that ‘ZO’ (defensive coordinator Zach Orr) is at the helm and how he’s going to call the game. I have a lot of confidence in him and we’re just going to come out and play our style of football.”

“That’s what we’ll do, and at the end of the day we’ll let the chips lie where they lie.”

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