Watch: Preston Smith Buying Rolexes for Entire Defense After Hitting 10 Sacks
Preston Smith beat teammate Za’Darius Smith in the race to 10 sacks. Because of that, he’s going to be spending a lot of money.
See the exchange between the Smiths in the video.
Ten sacks is as much of a milestone for a defender as 1,000 yards is to a running back or a receiver. In four seasons in Washington, Smith’s best season was eight sacks – accomplished twice.
“It’s my first time in my career,” he said following Sunday’s 24-16 victory over the Carolina Panthers. “I’m excited about it. My teammates helped me. I couldn’t have gotten it done without the other 10 guys on the defense doing their job. It’s very exciting for me, a career-high, double digits for the first time in my career. It’s just a great feeling right now, and going into the bye week 8-2 with my teammates is a great feeling also.”
Smith had two sacks on the night and was in on the game-clinching tackle of Christian McCaffrey at the goal line as time expired.
“We’re resilient,” he said. “We’re going to fight till the end, until the clock is at zero. We’re going to play our hearts out, we’re going to give it our all, we’re going to empty our tank out there each and every week.”
While Za’Darius Smith was voted a team captain and has helped change the defensive culture, quarterback Aaron Rodgers complimented Smith following Sunday’s win.
“He’s got kind of that attitude of gratitude every day where he’s just almost giddy about being a part of a team that has a chance to do something and is winning football games and is going to play meaningful games the rest of the season,” he said. “I give him a lot of credit though because as much as Z is that big personality, Preston is right there with him as far as making the most of his opportunities for leadership. He was the one that broke us down before the game, he was the one that broke us down at halftime with some really important words that guys need to hear and he’s embraces that role.”
