Za'Darius Smith spent three seasons with the Packers from 2019 through 2021.
The first two seasons were great; Smith was one of the fiercest pass rushers in football, racking up 26 sacks and serving as one of the best players on Green Bay's defense.
However, things fell apart in Smith's third year there. He felt like the organization's view of him changed drastically as he dealt with a back injury that sidelined him for all but one game in 2021.
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As Smith explained, he believed that injury situation led to the Packers treating him poorly throughout his final season in Green Bay.
"How I was [perceived] here in the building, I came down to here, to a nobody,” Smith explained to Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD.com. “To everybody in the building. I was like, ‘Damn, why am I being treated like this?' I brought the culture. I helped change this s—. Why the f— am I the one being treated like that?”
Walking past me not saying nothing. [Not] 'Z, how’s your back doing?' — there was none of that. As you can see, that adds on to why I’m on the other side. So, I can go back. I get to go back two times a year.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur was asked about Smith's comments ahead of Green Bay's Week 1 meeting with Minnesota.
"I respect the crap out of Z as a player," he said. "He busted his butt and did a lot of great things. I think we may have a different perspective of how things transpired."
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Smith originally suffered his back injury while lifting weights at training camp. He spoke to trainers about the problem right away.
"I go to the trainers, they tell me one thing," Smith said. "I said, ‘All right, I feel like I need a second opinion.’ Because this s— doesn’t feel like anything normal. It was training camp. It was coming back for training camp. When that happened, I said, ‘Let me get a second opinion.’ They didn’t want me to leave because it was training camp."
Smith attempted to tough it out and played in the Packers' first regular-season game against the Saints. He ended up needing surgery to repair a bulging disk in his back that was pressing on a nerve.
That knocked Smith out for the remainder of the season. He chose to rehab away from the Packers, knowing that the team would likely release him following the season to save $15.75 million in cap space.
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Unsurprisingly, Green Bay did just that. So, Smith was free to navigate the free-agent market and originally, he agreed to a deal that would send him to Baltimore, where he spent the first four years of his career.
However, the 30-year-old edge rusher had a change of heart. Vengeance became the No. 1 thing on his mind, so he opted to join the Vikings instead.
"I gave that s— my all," Smith said of his time in Green Bay. "I put my blood, sweat… I put my back on the f—ing line. I put everything. And that Year 3, I was treated bad. That’s why I’m here now. So, I can play them twice a year.”
