Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. announced Monday that this season, his 15th in the NFL, will be his last.
Smith told his teammates the news this morning and then revealed his intentions to reporters following the Ravens’ training camp workout. While the timing of his announcement — three days before the Ravens’ preseason opener — is interesting, Smith’s decision is hardly surprising to team officials, coaches and teammates.
“I feel like it’s time,” Smith said. “I’ve just been thinking about it and talking about it, and you train and I enjoy doing all that stuff, but … every time you do an interview at my age, people always ask you, how much longer do you want to play?
“I don’t know, it’s just something about here, man, that I feel like is the best place. If it’s going to be the end, this will be the best place to end. I think it’s always easier when you know you have a finish line.
“I’m not really a big gambler or whatever, but the analogy is all my chips are on the table. So, we’re going to see what the dealer gives me.”
“Hey, I think it’s cool, and he has had a great career,” said quarterback Joe Flacco. “I think it is awesome to spend time with him at the end of his career and to see if we can win it for him going out.”
“Remember what happened the last time we had a player like this retire,” linebacker Terrell Suggs said about Ray Lewis retiring following the 2012 championship season. “Steve Smith is one hell of a guy and maybe we can send him out with something special.”
It was widely believed that Smith, who is 36, was only going to play one or two seasons after he signed with the Ravens last March following his release from the Carolina Panthers, the team he played with for the first 13 seasons of his career.
As much as he enjoyed his first season with the Ravens in which he led the team with 79 receptions for 1,065 yards to go along with six touchdowns, Smith acknowledged on several occasions that it was difficult to spend so much time away from his family, who live in the Charlotte, N.C., area.
Smith and his wife, Angie, have four children and the oldest, Peyton, a soccer player who is garnering recruiting interest from several schools, will start college next year. Smith has said that he wants to be able to attend many of his son’s games, and be around more for his other son, Steve Jr., who turned 1 this year.
When asked if Smith was emotional, Flacco said: “He didn’t get real emotional, but you could tell it was something that had been on his mind for a long time. It was positive and … we’re all happy for him.”
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Known for his feistiness and competitive nature, Smith enters the 2015 season with 915 career receptions, 13,262 receiving yards and 73 touchdown catches. The five-time Pro Bowl selection also has two rushing and four return touchdowns in his career, which started when he was a third-round pick by the Panthers in the 2001 NFL draft.
Thought by some to be too small to be a prolific NFL pass catcher, Smith is just one of 12 players in league history to have 900 catches, 13,000 receiving yards and 70 receiving touchdowns. He currently ranks 18th in league history in receptions, 14th in receiving yards and 33rd in touchdowns.
His 17,672 career combined yards rank 10th in NFL history and are the most among active players. He and Tim Brown, who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame last week, are the only two players in league history to record at least 900 receptions and score touchdowns on a catch, run, punt return and kick return.
Smith wasted no time in signing with the Ravens last March, liking the fact that they were annual contenders for a Super Bowl ring, which has eluded him, and embracing the physical style that has long been one of the team’s trademarks. It also didn’t hurt that Baltimore was a short flight from his Charlotte home and coach John Harbaugh allowed him periodic days off to travel to be with his family.
Smith acknowledged from the very beginning that he was no longer the game-breaking receiver that he was earlier in his career, and claimed that he was coming to the Ravens as a complementary piece. However, on the field, Smith made an immediate impact, catching an 80-yard touchdown pass against the Cincinnati Bengals in his first career game in purple. It wasn’t long before he had morphed into Flacco’s go-to target.
This season, Smith will be counted on to repeat that success, as the Ravens lost their second- and third-leading pass catchers (Torrey Smith and Owen Daniels) from last year’s team, and possess a young and mostly unproven group of receivers.
Even though the Ravens didn’t re-sign Torrey Smith, the team took a step toward rebuilding its receiving corps this offseason by drafting Breshad Perriman in the first round and Darren Waller in the sixth. Of the 12 receivers on the 90-man roster, 10 of them are 26 years old or younger.
But Smith, who is the leader of the group, will certainly be a huge loss.
“It’s been a pleasure. He’s one of the most fun players that I’ve ever had the opportunity to be around as a coach,” Harbaugh said. “I’m looking forward to the rest of the season with him. I’ll cherish every day.
“I think this is something that he had been thinking about for quite a while. He and I talked about this weeks ago, maybe even months ago. I’m not exactly sure. But I think he wanted to wait until he was sure this was what he wanted to do. He’s sure and I think he’s going to try and make the most of it.”
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