Ravens training camp
WR Smith returns, brings his usual edge
During Thursday's practice, his first since a season-ending injury in 2015, Steve Smith Sr. lined up against Jimmy Smith and made a double move, leaving the Ravens' top cornerback flat-footed as the wide receiver jogged toward the end zone.
After catching a pass from quarterback Joe Flacco, Steve Smith did his trademark touchdown spin of the ball.
“The bully's back, that's all I got to say,” he said with a laugh after practice. “Vacation's over” for the defensive backs.
His nine-month rehabilitation from a ruptured Achilles tendon appears to be completed.
“I'm a perfectionist, so there were a lot of points where I questioned myself,” Smith said. “I believe there were probably two or three times when I really felt like, ‘Man, I'm done with this.'?”
But Smith is back, and the Ravens are taking shape. If Terrell Suggs' return to practice Monday lightened the mood, then Smith's first appearance in uniform ratcheted up the competitive edge and made the Ravens even more determined to rebound from a disappointing 5-11 record. Suggs said as much after a walk-through Thursday in preparation for Saturday night's preseason game at Indianapolis.
“It just feels like everything that we lost last year, we're getting it all back,” said Suggs, who like Smith tore his Achilles last season. “Now we're starting to get our swag back, our chemistry, and everything is starting to feel good. Now we're starting to feel like the Ravens again.”
Coach John Harbaugh sensed that, too.
“It was exciting, it was fun,” Harbaugh said. “It's a walk-through, but [Smith] snatched the ball and shoved it in somebody's face. I looked at Justin Forsett [and said] ‘He's back.'?”
Though Smith came out in a playful mood, he quickly changed gears when he took his place among the starters during an 11-on-11 drill late in the workout. He changed gears again, to a more emotional tone, when talking to reporters after practice.
In the spring, Smith said he was returning for his 16th season mostly to reach 1,000 career receptions — he is 39 short — but the five-time Pro Bowl selection acknowledged Thursday that that wasn't it.
Smith said it had to do more with the faith general manager Ozzie Newsome showed in him when the Carolina Panthers no longer wanted him after the 2013 season and because of the Ravens' patience after he was injured in Week 8.
“He had told me some things about why he thought I would be a good fit here,” Smith recalled of a conversation when Smith was a free agent in 2014. “He said, ‘If you can't be yourself, we don't want you to be here.' When I got hurt ... Ozzie and Coach Harbaugh told me to take as much time as I want to decide about coming back.”
Smith's eyes began to moisten and his words were choked.
“I really came back not to set any records but more because this organization gave me an opportunity,” he said. “When I got hurt, I felt I let those guys down in the locker room. For me to come back and play, it's to show them that I am dependable and they can depend on me and to show all [the media skeptics] that at 37 years old I can still play.”
Smith, who is entering the final year of a three-year, $10.5 million contract, said “only time will tell” how effective he will be. Of the wide receivers who played at least 16 years and caught 1,000 passes, some were effective while others began to drop off.
Of the five receivers in NFL history to catch at least 1,000 passes and play a minimum of 16 seasons, only Hall of Famer Jerry Rice and Tony Gonzalez put up comparable numbers in their 16th seasons.
After catching 67 passes for 830 yards and five touchdowns in 1999, Rice had 75 receptions for 805 yards and seven touchdowns in 2000, his final season with the San Francisco 49ers. Rice was productive for three more years with the Oakland Raiders. Gonzalez was an All-Pro with 93 catches for 930 yards and eight touchdowns in his 16th season, 2012 with the Atlanta Falcons.
Cris Carter went from 73 catches for 871 yards and six touchdowns while not missing a game with the Minnesota Vikings in 2001 to catching 17 passes for 66 yards and a touchdown in five games in his final NFL season with the Miami Dolphins.
Tim Brown was still productive in his 16th year, but dropped from 81 receptions for 930 yards and two touchdowns in 2002 with the Raiders to 52 catches for 567 yards and two touchdowns in 2003.
After 14 seasons with the St. Louis Rams, Isaac Bruce went from catching 61 passes for 835 yards and seven touchdowns while playing the entire season in his first year with the 49ers in 2008 to 21 receptions for 264 yards and no touchdowns over 10 games in 2009 before retiring.
Not many players enter their 16th NFL seasons coming off a serious injury. Smith learned that doing so takes another level of commitment. He found himself distracted by the heat during a rehabilitation session this summer with his trainer in the garage at his home in Charlotte, N.C.
“We had the garage door open and I looked at my trainer and I said, ‘The tint is too light on my car, I need it darker,'?” Smith said. “That just showed me like, ‘My mind is not into this today.' ... You're going to see guys more and more in the offseason retiring because of what it takes.
“To work out to look good on the beach, it's easy. But to run and play football at a high level and be physically fit, it's a requirement a lot of people don't understand. Once you get older, it doesn't respond the way it used to. Guys probably go online and look at their bank account and say ‘I'm good' and shut it down; it's not worth it.”
Smith seemed to dedicate this season to those who have helped him get this far.
“I intend to lay everything out,” he said, “not for myself, but for the people who believed in me and who invested in me 16 years ago. The people who thought I was only going to be here [in the NFL] for a minute. This is a chance for me to say ‘Thank you' to them and finish what [the Panthers] allowed me to start.”
Smith won't say whether 2016 will be his final season.
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