Roquan Smith has made a name for himself at the highest level. The 2017 Butkus Award recipient was able to earn quite a few eyeballs in his college days which eventually made him a high value asset during the 2018 NFL draft.
Advertisement
Roped in by the Chicago Bears as the eighth overall pick in the draft, Roquan was given a fully-guaranteed 18.47 million 4-year contract. However, in 2022, he openly announced that he wasn’t feeling valued by the new front office.
The negotiation drama touched new heights when the star LB showed up to the Bears training camp but refused to practice. He just wanted to get traded to some other franchise as soon as possible.
Finally, last year in October, Smith was able to get what he wanted. He was traded to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for linebacker A.J Klein and second and fifth round picks in the 2023 draft.
Also Read: “I Got a Family & Kids, But…”: Matthew Stafford Gives Major Update On His Future With The Rams
Roquan Smith is now the highest paid off-ball linebacker in the NFL
Most recently, Smith signed a blockbuster extension deal with the Ravens which has now made him the highest paid off-ball linebacker in the history of the league.
The 5-year extension is worth around $100 million with $45 million fully guaranteed. Roquan ruffled quite a few feathers when he refused to practice for the Bears but even before that, the man had made the headlines for getting involved in a massive controversy.
Smith was accused of s*xual assault by a South African girl last year in May. She had uploaded a TikTok video in which she had stated that the footballer had r*ped her when he was attending school in Georgia.
In addition to this, the girl has claimed that she was just 15 years old when the alleged assault took place. However, very quickly, the TikTok video and the account from which it was uploaded were deleted. Moreover, Roquan had also deactivated his Twitter account after the controversy started getting more attention.
Of course, jumping to any conclusions after the video isn’t the right thing to do but Smith was heavily criticized on different social media platforms for the ‘alleged act.’ Back to 2023, the star LB is set to earn big and most probably, he won’t refuse to practice due to lack of green in his account from now onwards.
