Packers Huddle

Za’Darius Smith is the preeminent “savage” who must star on Sundays.

He’s got the pelts on the wall — 72 sacks, 178 quarterback hits, three Pro Bowls. Most important? He’s still furious. Under this regime, the Lions have always treated their roster as more of a chemistry experiment that goes beyond size and skill specifications. Beyond film. Beyond analytics. More than any coach in the NFL, Campbell embraces the reality that football is a violent game. As such, its participants must be driven by something… extra.

Smith wants a ring. He got close in three straight years with the Green Bay Packers. “I want to be that leader,” he says, “who helps the football team go all the way.” But two teams standing in Detroit’s way just so happen to be two of Smith’s previous employers: the Packers and the Minnesota Vikings. So, he enunciates each word with baritone authority. He’s certain Holmes and Campbell wanted to infuse their defense with a player fueled by revenge — Smith is sure both knew that “Z is going to be on fire.”

He’s still exceptionally pissed at the Packers. You may recall Smith first opening up to Go Long in 2022 about how the team handled his back injury.

Turns out, he was only scratching the surface that conversation.

He has a lot more to say.

“It wasn’t right. I gave that team my all. They lied to me about my back,” Smith begins. “For a lot of fans who think I did wrong or was the mean guy in the locker room, that’s not my M.O. I’m not that type of player. I want to help my team win. But they didn’t know that story. And outside looking in, I’d be mad at me, too.”

He won’t forgive. He won’t forget. He’d love the chance to end their season. (Minnesota, too.) At 32 years old, Smith can go long stretches without dinging the quarterback. But even with the Lions — his fifth team in a decade — Smith has teased that he’s the rusher most-equipped to wreck a playoff game. One sack, one turnover is all this dynamite offense needs. Smith is well aware that the defense needs someone to put on the Superman cape.

The Packers hated when Smith opened up this wound in 2022, and they’ll probably hate it again. Smith doesn’t care.

This scar never healed, and that’s a good thing for the Lions.

They’ll need “Z” on fire.

The breakup never should’ve been so ugly. Z, at the price of four years, $66 million, was the player who proved GM Brian Gutekunst is willing to spend money to win. Z totaled 30 sacks with Green Bay. As the organization transitioned from Mike McCarthy to Matt LaFleur, Smith was exactly what those Aaron Rodgers-quarterbacked teams needed.

Then, without warning, the relationship deteriorated.

It all began when Smith felt a sharp pain in his back weightlifting ahead of training camp.

Green Bay’s medical staff took a look and — per Smith — instructed the pass rusher to simply do more core work. They didn’t say anything about a bulge in his back. Smith knew there was something very wrong and wanted it fixed ASAP, so he sought a second opinion. Specifically, the opinion of a doctor many NFL players seek for back issues: Dr. Robert Watkins, an orthopedic spine surgeon in Marina Del Ray, Calif. This did not sit well with the Packers. Covid protocols remained stringent the summer of 2021, and Smith was unvaccinated.

Smith believes this is why the Packers did not want him to fly to L.A.

“I didn’t have the vaccine,” he adds, “so for me to leave the building, they didn’t accept that.”

Still, Smith felt the urgent need to have someone else examine his back. Watkins previously worked wonders with Rob Gronkowski and Jason Pierre-Paul. The Packers told Smith that he’d need to be back the next morning, which meant paying for a flight that’d fly him back that same night of his visit. (“I had to pay $70,000 to go make sure everything was OK with me.”) Out in L.A., Watkins asked Smith if he felt a pain shooting down his leg. He did. Watkins informed him that he likely had a large bulge on his back that was striking a nerve. (Which a scan confirmed.) When Smith asked the doctor why the Packers didn’t tell him this, Watkins’ blunt response was, “They’re not going to tell you that.”

“He kept it real with me,” Smith says. “From then on out, everything went downhill.”


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Smith flew back to Watkins to have surgery and wanted to stay out west for his rehab.

The Packers fined him each day he was gone.

“This is what the fans aren’t knowing,” Smith says. “It added up to a million dollars. They didn’t void it. They kept it because I wanted to leave and go check my back.”

When he returned, about a month after surgery, Smith felt like a pariah — “a nobody” — to everyone in the Packers building.

Since he wasn’t around for training camp, he wasn’t named a captain.

One day, his temper boiled over. On the carpeted hallway outside of the locker room, the Packers instructed Smith to run. They wanted to test out that surgically repaired back.

“Trying to rush me in back,” Smith says. “When I was running, I said, ‘What the $%@# y’all doing? Why are y’all doing this?’ They gave me something to squat with. I got my stuff and I went home. I left. So that’s where the confusion came from: ‘Z ain’t a team leader. He just ditched his teammates.’ But the world’s not knowing.

“Nobody feels that pain but me. It worked out. If I would’ve stayed there, I wouldn’t still be playing football.”

Watkins shaved the bulge off of the nerve. Once the Packers acknowledged that bulge, Smith says, they wanted to take it out completely. And if that would’ve happened, he’s convinced his career would’ve ended in short order.

Nobody knew any of this in real time. And

That 2021 season, Smith didn’t speak to the press. He figured it was best to keep his lips sealed to prevent himself from being too honest and becoming a distraction. Nor did he completely shut it down. Smith returned in time for the playoffs and even humiliated guard Laken Tomlinson to sack Jimmy Garoppolo in Green Bay’s divisional playoff loss to San Francisco. That offseason, he signed with the Vikings to stick it to the Packers. When we spoke then, Smith made it clear he had the Week 1 matchup circled on his calendar. “I put my back on the $%@# line,” he said then. “And that Year 3, I was treated bad. That’s why I’m here now. So, I can play them twice a year.” Knifing criticism that came as a surprise given the traditionally conservative approach taken by the Packers’ medical staff.

Remember there are always two sides to a story. When you only hear one side, they will probably tell it, knowingly or unknowingly, in a way that paints them in the best light.

BSA wrote: ↑

27 Dec 2024 14:52

The Packers strength of schedule has dropped to number 8
The vikings strength of schedule is at number 24

Raptorman wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 11:01

BSA wrote: ↑

27 Dec 2024 14:52

The Packers strength of schedule has dropped to number 8
The vikings strength of schedule is at number 24

I find that interesting considering they play all the same teams except two. The Lion, Packers and Bears are 6, 8, 4 and the Vikings are magically at 24?

Pckfn23 wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 11:05

Raptorman wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 11:01

BSA wrote: ↑

27 Dec 2024 14:52

The Packers strength of schedule has dropped to number 8
The vikings strength of schedule is at number 24

I find that interesting considering they play all the same teams except two. The Lion, Packers and Bears are 6, 8, 4 and the Vikings are magically at 24?

3 games

Raptorman wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 11:01

BSA wrote: ↑

27 Dec 2024 14:52

The Packers strength of schedule has dropped to number 8
The vikings strength of schedule is at number 24

I find that interesting considering they play all the same teams except two. The Lion, Packers and Bears are 6, 8, 4 and the Vikings are magically at 24?

go pak go wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 11:14

Raptorman wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 11:01

BSA wrote: ↑

27 Dec 2024 14:52

The Packers strength of schedule has dropped to number 8
The vikings strength of schedule is at number 24

I find that interesting considering they play all the same teams except two. The Lion, Packers and Bears are 6, 8, 4 and the Vikings are magically at 24?

I was saying this too. Shocked me the range between SoS of MN and GB when we literally have the same schedule except it's 3 games now and the difference is rather large.

GB played Philly, Miami, and New Orleans whereas MN played NY, NYJ and ATL.

Add to it that MN beat GB and the Vikings SoS will look worse.

What it really tells me is the Strength of Schedule is close league wide that the stat or metric is kindly worthless.

APB wrote: ↑

28 Dec 2024 19:33

For what it’s worth, as of tonight, Saturday night, the Vikings are back to being predominant favorites at -1.

APB wrote: ↑

27 Dec 2024 18:29

I really, REALLY hope someone catches Myers and his “dope” look coming off the plane.

RingoCStarrQB wrote: ↑

29 Dec 2024 10:47

The Vikings disgraced the NFL after winning the league championship in '69 and then losing Super Bowl 4 to the Chiefs. They've been unable to get out of their own way ever since. Today's game may or may not exacerbate the Vikings problem.

If LaCoach can discipline himself today by quit being cutesy, then we'll achieve. If not, we'll likely under achieve. We can do this.

APB wrote: ↑

29 Dec 2024 07:42

Not good.