Big Extension for Ravens CB Jimmy Smith Classic Ozzie Newsome Move

There are some NFL teams that have a plan.

You may not always agree with elements of the plan, but even then you can see the plan at work. Every step is consistent, made the same way toward the same goal. Week after week, season after season, things are done the same way.

The Baltimore Ravens are one of those teams, and on Tuesday, general manager Ozzie Newsome went to a familiar call from the playbook that's made the Ravens one of the NFL's most consistently competitive teams of the past 15 years.

Keep the home-grown talent home.

As ProFootballTalk reported, the team has agreed to terms on a four-year, $48 million contract extension with cornerback Jimmy Smith. The deal includes $21 million in guaranteed money:

Tom Pelissero of USA Today broke down how the deal impacts the year that remained on Smith's rookie deal:

Not surprisingly, Smith was all smiles when talking to Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun after the deal was announced.

"I want to thank the Ravens for extending me," Smith said. "I'm happy to be a Raven. They drafted me, they trusted me. It means a lot that they have my back."

Newsome was beaming as well:

"

A lot of credit for this event goes to [agent] Drew Rosenhaus and [vice president of football administration] Pat [Moriarty]. There's been a lot of dialogue in trying to get an extension for Jimmy. It's an opportunity to have one of our good young players extend their career here in Baltimore I think his best football is ahead of him.

If he doesn't get hurt in the Cincinnati game last year, I don't know where he would have ended up as a player. But he was definitely trending up. I just want to thank Jimmy for five more years of football and looking forward to it.

"

You know it's a good day for a team when they're thanking Drew Rosenhaus for stuff.

And there's good reason for all that smiling—provided the foot injury that cut Smith's 2014 season short isn't expected to be an ongoing issue.

At over $10 million a season, it's a pretty safe bet they asked about that.

As Newsome mentioned, before getting hurt, it looked like the light bulb had finally come on in earnest for Smith.

Year	G	GS	Tackles	INT	PD	FF	PFF Rank
2011	12	3	20	2	8	0	DNQ
2012	11	2	34	0	3	0	112
2013	16	16	58	2	15	2	35
2014	8	8	28	1	6	0	10

The former first-round pick experienced his fair share of growing pains early in his career (more rule than exception for young corners), but by the end of his third season in 2013, Smith ranked a respectable 35th at his position, per Pro Football Focus.

Not exactly elite, but nothing to sneeze at.

The improvement carried over into 2014. Over the first seven games of last year, Smith was PFF's 10th-ranked cornerback. He ranked fourth in pass coverage. Smith didn't allow a touchdown pass and had the seventh-best passer rating against in the NFL.

Granted, $10 million and change a year with $20 million in guarantees may seem like a lot for a player coming off a significant injury, but the fact is this: Assuming health, Smith is a big (6'2"), young (26) cornerback on track to becoming an elite option at the position.

And given what elite (or even decent) cornerbacks make in today's NFL, $10 million suddenly doesn't look so bad.

Player	Team	Avg. Annual $	PFF Rank
Darrelle Revis	NYJ	$14.02 million	4
Patrick Peterson	AZ	$14.01 million	69
Richard Sherman	SEA	$14 million	3
Joe Haden	CLE	$13.5 million	28
Byron Maxwell	PHI	$10.5 million	45

It's also a classic Newsome move. Sure, Newsome could have waited another year and let the last season of Smith's rookie deal play out, hedging his bet against the foot injury.

But Newsome took a calculated risk, rolling the dice that the flipper's fine and Smith will continue to get better. He rolled the dice—but on one of his guys, a player he drafted at one of the NFL's premium positions.

Not every NFL team has a plan. It stands to reason they should, but it doesn't take long to notice that some franchises lurch around from one misstep to the next. If there's a big picture, it was painted by Dali.

Francois Mori/Associated Press

That's Cleveland's 2015 draft strategy.

However, consistently successful teams—the Patriots and Seahawks, Packers and Ravens—know well enough not to fix what isn't broken. They've found a winning formula, and a big part of that formula is keeping the talent they develop.

Re-upping Smith is just Ozzie being Ozzie, sticking to the script. And given Newsome's track record over the past decade-plus, that $10 million a season may look like a bargain by the time all is said and done.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter at @IDPSharks.