5 biggest deals made at the 2022 NFL Trade Deadline

2. Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens

This is one trade deadline deal I just don’t really understand. The Baltimore Ravens certainly got a really good player in Roquan Smith, and they got him for a really solid price at just a 2nd and 5th-round pick. On the surface, this looks like a really good value for Baltimore.

But this is a weird trade.

The Ravens have obviously some ongoing and very obvious issues regarding the long-term contract status of Lamar Jackson. If you assume that deal is going to get done, where does that leave the NFL’s leading tackler Roquan Smith, who wants north of $20 million per year on a long-term deal himself?

The Ravens are pushing their chips into the center of the table this year when I’m not so sure that’s the right move. It’s not necessarily the wrong move, either, it’s just odd considering Lamar Jackson’s contract situation and the fact that this Ravens team has no wide receiver room to speak of.

Rashod Bateman can’t stay healthy. Hollywood Brown is gone. How many games will the Ravens win with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely as the top two targets in the passing game? Maybe more than I seem to think.

From the Bears’ perspective, why did you sell low on Roquan? Were there not better offers in the offseason? Who is general manager Ryan Poles planning on spending his near-$120 million in cap space on next offseason if not Roquan Smith?

This trade just struck me as odd in so many ways, but it was one of the biggest deals at the deadline, to be sure.