Ravens' Roquan Smith Ready for Double Revenge in 2025
The Ravens will play at least four prime-time games in 2025 – two on Sunday, and one on Monday and Thursday. With two 'to be determined' time slots against the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers to end the season, there is room for more.
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But Baltimore's most important prime-time affair might be its first, when it caps off the first Sunday of the season on the road against the Buffalo Bills.
Everyone wants to start 1-0, and against a Super Bowl contender, a win could provide crucial confidence as adversity hits later in the year. Against Buffalo, though, it is also an opportunity to exorcise the demons of last season's Divisional Round disaster.
Ravens star Roquan Smith is ready for two revenge games after the schedule release, and he won't have to wait long for the first one.
"Yeah, just how I like it," Smith said Wednesday, via NFL Media. "Revenge is best served as a cold dish, you know. So, it will be nice to get up to Buffalo and get a little payback for those guys from the end of the year."
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Baltimore lost 27-25 in the AFC Divisional Round last season, a loss largely defined by superstar Mark Andrews having the worst half of his career. Buffalo lost a week later to the eventual Super Bowl-losing Kansas City Chiefs in their own heartbreaker.
Both are expected to make deep playoff runs again. Such is life with a superstar quarterback under center. But neither Lamar Jackson nor Josh Allen has won the conference just yet, adding motivation to perhaps the best game of the Week 1 slate.
"Misery sets in all offseason, and you use that as motivation throughout the offseason," Smith said. "So, just knowing that we have everything it takes to be the best team in the NFL. You have to show that game in and game out, and it's going to start up there in Buffalo. Just like everything we've gone through throughout the offseason and how it ended, it's just about unleashing it on those guys. And I'm sure they have the same plan."
Smith won't just be looking out for Buffalo. In Week 8, he has a personal score to settle with the Chicago Bears. The team that drafted him in the first round shipped him to Baltimore in 2022. For the first time, he'll get to play against the Bears and show them what they've been missing.
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'I'm very excited for that one, you know,' Smith said. 'I have a couple guys over there that I still know, keep up with and a lot of my friends are still in Chicago. So, I know a lot of them are going to be here at the game. It's going to be one that I'm looking forward to for a little while now. I'm very excited about it so whenever and wherever we play them, I'm very excited about that one.'
With six intense AFC North games adding to a first-place schedule and a date with the NFC North, there will be no shortage of big games on the Ravens' schedule. On two Sundays, Smith will have a little more to play for.
Related: One Raven Must Be on Team USA in 2028
Related: Ravens Derrick Henry Backup Labeled Among NFL's Most Underrated
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