Each day at Ravens practice, Roquan Smith sprints out of the team’s sprawling “Castle” and onto whichever of the three fields the defense is using that afternoon in Owings Mills, a routine the inside linebacker has maintained every afternoon since he landed with Baltimore after being traded from the Chicago Bears 12 months ago. The only exceptions are walk-throughs, because he doesn’t get a chance to warm up.

Most coaches and teammates haven’t noticed Smith’s daily sprint, but they aren’t surprised by it.

“It’s his statement,” coach John Harbaugh said. “Everybody has their way of doing it, and I think it’s one of his things. He brings energy. Maybe it’s his way of saying, ‘When I step on the field, I’m 100 miles an hour. I’m full speed beginning to end, sideline to sideline, wall to wall.’ That’s the way he practices. It’s the way he plays. As a coach, of course you love that.”

“It’s pretty Roquan of him to do so,” added second-year safety Kyle Hamilton. “He’s our energy guy.”

He’s their everything guy.

Since Baltimore traded for the 26-year-old All-Pro and 2022 Pro Bowl selection midway through last season, the Ravens defense ranks first in the NFL in points allowed per game (14.9), first in yards allowed per game (283) and first in yards allowed per play (4.5). This season, Baltimore is again allowing the fewest points per game (15.1), is third in total yards allowed (2,212) and ranks first by a healthy margin in FTN Fantasy’s Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA).

Smith’s 82 tackles through eight games lead the team and rank fourth in the NFL. Not bad for second- and fifth-round draft picks along with linebacker A.J. Klein, which is what Baltimore sent to the Bears in return for the former Georgia Bulldogs star who Chicago drafted eighth overall in 2018.

“I was at a walk-through in Chicago about to leave the building to get a massage when I got the tap on the shoulder saying the GM wants to see you,” Smith said of his exit from the Bears. “It was emotional during the time. [I was] just thinking Chicago came [and drafted me] right out of college; I was thinking I was going to retire there.”

Instead, Smith, who had requested a trade and said the organization did not negotiate a possible contract extension in good faith, was dealt to Baltimore a few months later. Operating without an agent at the time, he then negotiated his own five-year, $100 million extension with the Ravens.

Though Baltimore didn’t make a trade ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, the impact of the deal for Smith can’t be overstated.

“We don’t have a second-round pick. Do I hate that? Yes,” general manager Eric DeCosta said during the draft in April. “But, our second-round pick is Roquan. And I gotta say, I don’t think you can get a better second-round pick. So I’m thrilled that we don’t have a second-round pick. I look at that and I say, ‘Man, we really lucked out.’ … Roquan is a force multiplier. He lifts everybody else up.”

In fact, they’ve soared.

Fellow inside linebacker Patrick Queen struggled at times with missed tackles and broken assignments early in his career and before Smith’s arrival. Last year, he had a breakout season with a career and team-high 117 tackles along with career highs in sacks (five), interceptions (two) and pass breakups (six). Over the last 10 games of the regular season after Smith’s arrival, Baltimore’s linebackers were the second-highest graded group in the NFL by Pro Football Focus behind only the San Francisco 49ers, a trend that’s produced similar results this year.

“It’s more than I could imagine,” Queen said of Smith’s impact on him and the team. “Great dude, hard worker. From the time he’s here, you know he’s here. Never a day off for him. I’m thankful he’s on our team and to be alongside him and learn from him and be able to grow with him.”

Smith’s influence indeed extends beyond the numbers he is putting up.

He’s been mentioned in the same breath as Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis by quarterback Lamar Jackson. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey evoked another Ravens legend, Terrell Suggs. Smith has worn the team’s green dot, signaling the coaches’ trust in him to call out plays and organize the defense. And he’s given speeches before most games, including the Ravens’ 38-6 blowout of the Detroit Lions two weeks ago when he delivered a message befitting Russell Crowe in “Gladiator.”

“I was telling those guys it was our house at the end of the day,” Smith said of the speech. “They say it was lions and they were coming to the bank. It wasn’t a den. I talked to team security and told them lock the doors and we’ll decide when we want to let ‘em out.”

On a defense that is perhaps the best the league and is filled with big personalities, including Humphrey as well as outside linebackers Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, Smith has no trouble fitting in and making his voice heard.

The first day he arrived, he stood up in a team meeting, introduced himself and laid out what his mindset is. That mindset, Hamilton said, is that the 6-foot-1, 236-pound former Georgia star is going to attack the ball every play, bring energy and be the same guy every day. It helps that he has delivered.

“Ro’s talkative,” Hamilton said. “He’s talkative on the field, which helps us communicate, but he’s nonstop talking in the locker room. If you come in here tired, he’s going to call you out and wake you up.

“It’s contagious. [He has] an infectious mindset. It’s really changed our team for the better.”

It hasn’t been lost on players young or old, including the 30-year-old Clowney, who is on his fifth team and has played alongside his share of star linebackers, including six-time All-Pro Bobby Wagner, now with the Seattle Seahawks, who the Ravens will face Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium.

“They’re the best two linebackers I’ve had on my team in my career,” the 10-year veteran said of Smith and Queen. “Their communication level is through the roof. [Smith] knows where everybody is lined up and knows everybody’s job. When you got a guy who can line everybody up and communicate and make everybody around you better it makes my job a whole lot easier.”

As for that daily ritual of sprinting onto the field and why Smith does it?

“Ever since I first got here it was just my approach to the day,” he said. “I was going out and wanting to attack the day. Once I do that I think it carries over into my practice.”

And to everything else.

Week 9

Seahawks at Ravens

Sunday, 1 p.m.

TV: CBS

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 5 1/2

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