Baltimore Ravens: Making sense of Jimmy Smith extension

The Baltimore Ravens had one of the best cornerbacks of the 2013 season, as Lardarius Webb came back from an injury-shortened 2012 season to defend 23 passes as he resumed the elite level of play he showed in his breakout 2011 season. However, Webb was a massive weak point in the Ravens sagging secondary last season, and he was so poor that he was forced to take a paycut in the offseason. Rising CB Jimmy Smith, on the other hand, had a breakout season last year before bowing out with a season-ending injury, and he’s just received a handsome raise to keep him in Baltimore for his best years.

According to Pro Football Talk, the Ravens have handed Smith a four-year extension worth $48 million that includes a hefty $21 million in guaranteed funds. Based on the numbers found on Over The Cap, only five current CBs signed contracts with more total guaranteed money, and only four corners (Darrelle Revis, Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, and Joe Haden) receive more than $12 million per season.

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So when the PFT report was released, most people understandably attacked Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome for grossly overpaying Smith out of desperation. However, the USA Today’s Tom Pelissero clarified that, because of the structure of the deal, Smith’s contract should be thought of as a $48 million deal over five seasons. As Pelissero notes, this means that the Ravens are actually paying Smith $10.275 million per year, which while princely is a far less egregious sum than a deal that would make him the fifth-highest paid corner in the league.

As it stands right now, the contract Smith now has is comparable to the one Byron Maxwell signed with the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, and that’s unsurprisingly unsettling for fans who don’t see Smith as a player of Maxwell’s caliber. But Smith has improved steadily throughout his career after initially being a raw, inconsistent liability , and he performed well enough last season to be regarded as a true shutdown cornerback.

After defending 16 passes in a quietly solid 2013 season, Smith also averaged a PD per game with eight in eight games before he required Lisfranc surgery. His season-ending injury was a debilitating blow to a Ravens secondary that didn’t receive an in-season bounce-back from Webb and failed to receive above-average play from anybody outside of ace coverage safety Will Hill, who is also a star player for this secondary (albeit one with too many recurring off-field issues to be a building block).

Since Smith was injured early on in the Ravens Week 8 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, he actually had a pass defended in every game last season except for in Week 3, which was the only game in which, per Pro Football Focus, the opposition completed every pass into his coverage (even so, the Cleveland Browns were just 3-3 for 16 yards).

Stats aren’t the best way to evaluate cornerbacks, but the advanced metrics are reliable enough when they are as impressive as Smith’s were last season. Per PFF, QBs completed just 51.3% of their passes in the Baltimore Ravens No. 1 corner’s coverage, averaging a meager 8.2 yards per reception when they did manage to hit their target. In fact, Smith improved his ability to keep plays in front of him so much that he didn’t allow a single touchdown despite his eight PDs.

This all led to a 51.5 QB Rating allowed, and it’s clear to me that Smith established himself as a clear No. 1-caliber CB in this league after teasing us with the word “potential” in his first three seasons. He was among the league leaders at CB in QB Rating allowed, yards allowed per snap in coverage, and number of snaps in coverage before a reception allowed.

It’s a shame his season was cut short, because the Ravens secondary would have been much stronger, especially considering the elite pass rush in front of them. It’s also a shame, because more people would be praising him as an uber-athletic shutdown CB instead of tweeting things like, “Lol who’s that? The old WR for the Jacksonville Jaguars?”

This is a risky deal since the Ravens are giving Smith plenty of guaranteed money and are making him one of the highest-paid CBs in the league, but the thing is that he has a good shot at making this contract worth it. Seriously. He was that good last season, and even though he will be 27 when the 2015 season starts, this deal only takes him through his prime. Given his athletic tools and the fact that we haven’t seen a full, peak season from him, he can be worth this amount of money.

Dec 8, 2013; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith (22) encourages the fans to cheer during the game against the Minnesota Vikings at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

The Ravens always wanted to get an extension done with Jimmy Smith, but the elephant in the room is the fact that he’s coming back from Lisfranc surgery. While we have every reason to believe that he’ll come back from it 100%, I wonder if the Ravens could have minimized some of the risk by waiting on him.

Of course, maybe they didn’t want to be too cautious with Smith at the risk of having him blow up in 2015 and leave in the 2016 offseason (but then again, there’s always the franchise tag to buy time for negotiations, since Smith probably would have been cool with taking $10.275 million per year at any stage).

I am a big fan of Smith as a player after he blossomed into a shutdown CB last season, but I’m not a huge fan of this contract. At the end of the day, the Ravens are paying too much, but to call it a “gross overpay” is hyperbolic. Smith is a great player and is an incredibly important part of a Ravens secondary that allowed five 300-yard passing games without him last season.

If we use Pelissero’s $10.275 million, Smith will make a little less per year than Maxwell and might even be the better player.

Under that scope, this is actually a fair deal for both sides, because if Smith progresses like he should and builds on what he did in his eight appearances last year, then he could very well be a sure-fire, top-five corner. I’m too cheap to fully appreciate this deal, but I can certainly stand by the fact that Smith is an exceptional corner.

Next: What have been the Ravens 5 best moves of the offseason?

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