NFL Fines All-Pro LB for Season-Ending Tackle on Buccaneers’ Star WR

Getty Baltimore Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith.

Don’t expect Roquan Smith to receive much of a warm welcome the next time the Baltimore Ravens travel to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the NFL fined Smith, a 4-time All-Pro linebacker, for executing a hip-drop tackle that ended the season of star wide receiver Chris Godwin on Monday Night Football in Week 7.

The tackle resulted in a dislocated ankle for Godwin, sidelining one of the NFL’s leading receivers for the rest of the season.

“NFL fined Ravens LB Roquan Smith $16,833 for the hit it believed to be a hip-drop tackle that dislocated Chris Godwin’s ankle,” Schefter wrote on his official X account on October 25.

In March 2024, the NFL banned hip-drop tackles, with a 15-yard penalty assessed along with a $16,833 fine for the first offense and a $22,511 fine for his second offense.

It would be the second fine for Smith this season after he was fined $16,391 for a horse collar tackle in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on September 13. He was also fined $16,391 for roughing the passer against the Detroit Lions in 2023.

From NFL Operations: “A hip-drop tackle occurs when a defender wraps up a ball carrier and rotates or swivels his hips, unweighting himself and dropping onto ball carrier’s legs during the tackle. The NFL analyzed more than 20,000 tackles over the past two seasons and determined that this specific technique causes lower extremity injuries at a rate 20 times higher than other tackles, resulting in an unacceptable risk to player health and safety.”

Smith One of NFL’s Dominant Defensive Players

Smith has been one of the NFL’s most dominant defensive players since the Chicago Bears selected the 2017 Butkus Award winner and SEC Defensive Player of the Year out of Georgia with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft.

Smith is a 4-time NFL All-Pro and 3-time Pro Bowler and signed a 5-year, $100 million contract extension with the Ravens in March 2023, making him one of the highest paid defensive players in the league.

“I never go into any game meaning to injure any player,” Smith told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley on October 24. ” … I got a lot of respect for (Godwin) as a player and what he has accomplished throughout this league. You never want to see anybody go down with any type of injury. But we play a very physical game. It demands a lot. Bullets are flying pretty fast.”

Godwin’s Time in Tampa Bay Might Be Over

One of the many sad aspects of Godwin’s injury is that it may have signified the end of his time in Tampa Bay, where he’s been since the Buccaneers selected him out of Penn State in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft.

Godwin was having one of the best seasons of his career and was fourth in the NFL in receiving with 50 receptions for 576 yards and 5 touchdowns — he was also trying for his fourth consecutive season with 1,000 receiving yards.

He’s also in the final season of the 3-year, $60 million contract extension he signed in March 2022. The Buccaneers had already declined to extend Godwin in the preseason.

Godwin wasn’t the only Tampa Bay player to go down with an injury against the Ravens, with fellow wide receiver Mike Evans going out with a hamstring injury that will keep him out until at least after the bye in Week 11.