11. ZA’DARIUS SMITH, GREEN BAY PACKERS – $22.3 MILLION:
Baltimore traded up in the fourth round of the 2015 draft to take Smith, giving up longtime tackle Haloti Ngata. Smith quietly rose up as an effective if not spectacular pass rusher in the NFL.
He notched 8.5 sacks last year, which led the storied Baltimore defense.
And what timing that turned out to be, as Smith signed a whopping four-year, $66 million contract with the Green Bay Packers. The other half of their effort to majorly bulk their pass rush through free agency, Smith will score a solid $22.3 million for his services in 2019. Smith may be an elite pass rusher in the NFL. Green Bay was willing to pay – a lot – to find out.