Roquan Smith wins pro Butkus Award after stellar season
Former Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith was named the 2022 recipient of the Butkus Award for the NFL. Smith, who was traded from the Chicago Bears to the Baltimore Ravens midway through the season, finished up his season with a career-high 169 tackles – good for third best in the NFL – while logging three interceptions and 4.5 sacks.
Smith had 16 tackles in two separate games this season including the regular-season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals. Smith totaled 12 solo stops, his lone game with double-digit solo stops. Overall, the Montezuma, Ga. native had nine games with double-digit total tackles.
Smith is the fourth player ever to win the award both in college and the pros after taking home the award for the top linebacker back in 2017 at Georgia. That year Smith helped the Bulldogs to an SEC Championship Game victory, a thrilling win in the Rose Bowl over Oklahoma and an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Smith joins a group of elite linebackers to win the award both in college and the pros alongside Patrick Willis, Von Miller and Luke Kuechly.
Matt Butkus, the son of Dick Butkus, stopped by the Ravens’ practice facility on Wednesday to present Smith with the award.
“I’m very grateful to receive this,” Smith said. “Receiving it in college meant a lot to me, being recognized as the best. I have a great deal of respect for your dad and the way he played the game. I try to [mirror] some of that in my play. This means a lot to me and I can’t wait to put it up in my man cave.”
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“Your dad wasn’t happy about that,” Harbaugh joked about the midseason trade of Smith from Butkus’ Chicago Bears to Baltimore. “I was happy that your dad felt so highly about Roquan Smith as a linebacker because your dad was the epitome of being a linebacker in the history of the National Football League, and I think this is a throwback linebacker too – a leader. The great players make the players around them better. That’s what Roquan Smith does. Not only does he play great; he raises the level for everybody else.”
Smith was one of four former Georgia Bulldogs to be named an NFL All-Pro this season and the only one to land on the first team. The other three also crossed paths in Athens back in 2017 as a part of the special group: Nick Chubb, Andrew Thomas and Smith’s fellow Baltimore Raven Nick Moore.
The Ravens fell in the Wild Card round of the Playoffs this past weekend so the season is over for Smith, however he signed a five-year, $100 million contract extension to keep him in Baltimore for the foreseeable future as the centerpiece of the Ravens defense.
