Za'Darius Smith left the Browns at the 2024 trade deadline. The veteran pass rusher appeared to leave football in the middle of the 2025 season when he announced he was retiring from the game.
Turns, at least, the latter wasn't entirely correct. For a while, it looked like the former wouldn't be, either, until it remained that way.
Smith will be reuniting with at least one person from his Browns time, though, as the pass rusher is joining former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski by signing with the Atlanta Falcons, the team officially announced Aug. 18. The Falcons have lost one edge rusher, Jalon Walker, to a season-ending knee injury, while 2025 first-round pick James Pearce has been suspended for the first eight games by the NFL for a personal conduct policy violation in connection to an off-season domestic violence arrest.
Subscribe to Browns Insider newsletter
Smith had been in Berea Aug. 13 for a workout with the Browns, and there were reports a deal was on the table to bring him back to Cleveland. However, he went to Atlanta Aug. 17 for a workout and ultimately signed.
The Browns remain on the hunt for a veteran defensive end to add to their defensive line group, something they've been doing since even before they traded Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for defensive end Jared Verse and draft picks on June 1. They pulled back a contract with A.J. Epenesa in the spring due to what they called concerns over his physical, then couldn't get a deal done with Jadeveon Clowney earlier this month as he signed with the Houston Texans.
Smith, who turns 34 on Sept. 8, would've fit a similar bill as Clowney. In fact, when the Browns originally acquired him in a May 2023 trade with the Minnesota Vikings, he was the direct replacement for Clowney.
At that time, the Browns were looking for a counterpart to go with Garrett, with young ends Alex Wright and Isaiah McGuire both in their first two years in the league. This time, both are established young pieces of the pass rush, with Wright having signed a three-year extension with the Browns in 2025 and McGuire playing for a new contract this season.
Wright, Verse and McGuire are three of the top four defensive ends currently, and all are 25. The most experienced end is Julian Okwara, the 28-year-old sixth-year veteran, while fourth-year pro Benton Whitley, at 27, is the only other end over the age of 25.
Za'Darius Smith stats
Smith, though, stepped away from football last October after just five games with the Philadelphia Eagles, his sixth team. He had 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits and two tackles for loss in that time, raising his career numbers to 70.5 sacks, 176 hits and 87 tackles for loss in 145 regular-season games since the Baltimore Ravens drafted in the fourth round in 2015 out of the University of Kentucky.
Smith's time Cleveland could be considered a success, especially the first year in 2023. He had 10.5 combined sacks in 25 games with the Browns, including 5.5 sacks in 16 games during their 2023 playoff season.
Smith still had five sacks in the first nine games of the Browns' dismal 2024 season before he was traded to the Detroit Lions at the deadline along with 2025 seventh-round pick for a 2025 fifth- and a 2026 sixth-round pick, both of which the Browns ultimately traded away. He helped the Lions to an NFC North championship and the No. 1 seed in the NFC with four sacks, 10 quarterback hits and three tackles for loss in eight games.
Smith spent the Ravens portion of his career mostly as a rotation player, starting 16 of 58 games in four seasons with 18.5 sacks in that span. He signed in 2019 with the Green Bay Packers, which is where his career took off with a career-high 13.5 sacks and the first of three Pro Bowl bids in a four-season span.
That was the start of a four-year stretch during which he recorded at least 10 sacks in three of those seasons. The only season he didn't was when a back injury limited to just one game in 2021, which was his final year with the Packers.
Smith rebounded with a 10-sack performance with the Vikings in 2022. They dealt him to the Browns, along with a 2025 sixth-round pick and a 2025 seventh-round pick, in exchange for a 2024 5th-round pick and a 2025 5th-round pick.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: No Browns reunion as Za'Darius Smith signs with Kevin Stefanski's Falcons