The Baltimore Ravens have reached a five-year contract extension with their inside linebacker Roquan Smith, according to ESPN on Tuesday. The NFL Network revealed that the deal is worth $100 million in total and will make Smith the highest-paid player in his position.

It cost the Ravens a second-round pick and a fifth rounder for this year's NFL Draft to trade for Smith with the Chicago Bears in October 2022. Having started in nine games for the Ravens this season, he had 169 tackles, the third-most in the league, making integral contributions to the team's NFL-top defense that allowed only 18.5 points per game, the third-fewest among 32 teams.

Smith was selected into Pro Bowl this season for the first time in his career but he was already a two-time Second-Team All-Pro defender. He also became the first player since Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis to get at least 100 tackles, plural sacks and at least one interception in every of the first five seasons in his career.

"He wants to do the things that are required to be a great player and to be a great unit and then to impact your team," the Ravens' head coach John Harbaugh said of Smith on Monday. "That's what he's all about – 100 percent – [and] that's what I love about him. He's one of the top guys I've ever seen that way, and I think that does always impact everybody as a leader, for sure."

The Ravens finished the 2022 NFL regular season with a 10-7 record to rank second in the American Football Conference North. They will play the division leaders, the Cincinnati Bengals, in the Wild Card Game at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sunday.

The Ravens' star quarterback Lamar Jackson only made 12 appearances for the team before suffering a sprain on his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). Though the team doesn't count him out of the postseason, if Jackson doesn't return or is in a poor form, the defensive squad led by Smith will shoulder more duties in the postseason competition.

Jackson will finish his fifth-year option of his rookie deal after this season. The Ravens are able to use the franchise tag on him after Smith agrees to the new deal, just in case the extension talks go side ways with Jackson.