The NFL's schedule makers had to be grinning when they put the finishing touches on the Week 1 schedule.
It's a week that begins with the renewal of a long-running rivalry drowning in mutual disdain: Cowboys-Eagles. And the week's penultimate game -- Ravens-Bills -- brings comparable dislike with even rawer emotions after the teams' most recent postseason result.
Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith took one look at Baltimore's Week 1 opponent and started licking his chops.
"Yeah, just how I like it," Smith said Wednesday during an appearance on NFL Schedule Release '25. "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."
Smith certainly isn't one to run from a challenge, nor should the Ravens feel as if they don't have a right to share the field with the Bills.
Just last season, Baltimore blasted Buffalo in Week 4 by a shocking final of 35-10 before meeting again in the postseason. The latter contest produced a frustrating loss in what was very much a winnable game for the Ravens, wiping away any meaning from the early season triumph and ending their 2024 campaign on an incredibly sour note.
"Honestly, man those guys won the game fair and square last year, you know that. 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."
It's cliché to suggest a team like the Ravens is out to address unfinished business, but Smith sure seems to have a vendetta or two in mind when scanning Baltimore's schedule in May. Just ask him how he feels about facing his former employer, the Chicago Bears, for the first time in Week 8.
"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 excited about that one."
Smith left Chicago with plenty of animosity after his attempts to negotiate an extension fell on disinterested ears. Eventually, the Bears traded him to Baltimore for a decent haul, then replaced him a year later with former Bills standout Tremaine Edmunds.
As Smith said, he still has friends in Chicago, including some he didn't play with during his time in the Windy City. But that won't keep him from unleashing his inner beast on them when they meet.
"Each and every guy who's lined up across from me, whether that's center, running back -- (D’Andre) Swift, that's my guy in college -- or a receiver coming across the middle or tight end, whoever," Smith said. "So, at the end of the day every single person has to get dealt with, in each and every game."
Typically, a key player might take a diplomatic approach to discussing the upcoming slate, especially in May; just look at Matthew Stafford's comments on the Rams' outlook on Wednesday for proof. Not Smith, though. If anyone is setting a tone for Baltimore's 2025 season, it's the Ravens' defensive enforcer.
