With the mere mention of possibly being traded to the Detroit Lions, weeks before it happened, Za’Darius Smith had revenge games on his mind.

“If I was to go to Detroit, I would like it, because I get to play Green Bay twice a year and the Vikings twice a year, Smith said in mid-October, via Scott Petrak of the Chronicle-Telegram. “So, yeah, that’ll be big.”

Smith has been impactful for the Lions from the start after being acquired at the trade deadline, but his first shot at a revenge game came against the Packers on Thursday night. He registered his third sack as a Lion on the first play of the game, setting the tone right away for a Lions’ defense that had to deploy all kinds of new or fairly new pieces.

Smith spent three seasons with the Packers (2019-2021), earning a Pro Bowl nod in each of the first two seasons as he totaled 26 sacks. A back injury sidelined him for the rest of the 2021 season after one game, and Green Bay released him in March of 2022. He then landed with the Minnesota Vikings, and had another double-digit sack season (10) in 2022 as he got some votes for Comeback Player of the Year.

After the Lions’ win over the Packers Thursday night, NFL Network’s Stacey Dales caught up with Smith, noting the revenge game angle.

“Za’Darius, you told me this week, kind of a little bit of a revenge game because you gave that franchise, for three years, your everything”, Dales said.

Smith agreed whole-heartedly with how Dales put it.

“Two years I gave it to them, and once I got hurt, they sent me down like I wasn’t nothing. But, I’m glad to be on the other side now. You know I had a chance to go to the Vikings and get my revenge. And I came to Detroit and got my revenge again,” Smith said.