For a lot of – even most – Green Bay Packers fans, this week's Preston Smith trade didn't come as a huge surprise. Despite being with the Packers for the better part of the last decade, Smith's role with the defense was clearly getting smaller, and he was on pace to play the lowest amount of defensive snaps since his rookie season in Washington back in 2015.
And while the Packers don't exactly have the deepest pass-rushing unit in football, there were multiple guys outperforming Smith, and combined with his salary, the writing for his Green Bay exit was on the wall. Now he'll join a Pittsburgh Steelers defense that's already stacked with talent at all three levels, and will get a chance to prove that his best games aren't entirely behind him.
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It also doesn't help that, for the first time in a while, the Packers switched defensive schemes this offseason. According to Smith, the change to Jeff Hafley's 4-3 system was part of the reason why he requested a trade, and why he's now a Pittsburgh Steeler.
Preston Smith says he requested trade after Packers changed base defensive scheme
Preston Smith is happy to be a Steeler. Says a few weeks ago he requested a trade from the Packers pic.twitter.com/P3cFHVw43w
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 6, 2024
"Getting out here, and getting back into a system I'm comfortable being in, playing at a high level, I'm loving it right now," Smith said in his first press conference as a member of the Steelers. " is just what I've been playing in the last nine years of my career, until this past season. It's what I'm comfortable playing in, what I got used to playing in the previous nine seasons. So being back in that system, it's like riding your favorite bike again."
I'm sure not every Packers fan agrees, but fair play to Smith here. When you're a 10-year NFL vet who's very clearly on the back nine of an illustrious career, you've earned the right to request a trade for stuff like this – especially if the team you're currently on isn't all that interested in playing you a bunch.
The switch may also help explain why some of the Packers other pass-rushers, like Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark, have had an underwhelming first half of this season. The two have 2.5 combined sacks (all of which belong to Gary) and are both on pace to have career-worst seasons at their current levels of production.
The good news is that, generally speaking, the Packers' defense looks like a unit that's getting better month-over-month. So maybe it just took some time to adjust? Either that, or there's a bunch of change coming to that side of the ball this offseason.