Ravens' Roquan Smith eliciting Ray Lewis comparisons - ESPN

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Roquan Smith ran the linebacker drill to perfection, but he was asked to do it again.

It was eight years ago at a football camp in Bradenton, Florida, and Smith was a sophomore at the University of Georgia. He read how the center, guard and running back moved and took the correct angle to make the tackle. That's when Baltimore Ravens Hall of Famer, and camp instructor, Ray Lewis told him to repeat it.

«This is how you do it,» Lewis told the other players, urging them to watch Smith's patience, feet and vision.

That was the first time Lewis crossed paths with Smith, but Lewis' impact on the young linebacker began long before that encounter.

When the Ravens (7-3) host the Cincinnati Bengals (5-4) on Thursday night (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Lewis' influence will be on display. One of the main reasons Baltimore has been in first place in the AFC North all season is because Smith has become the team's best middle linebacker and leader since Lewis retired in 2012.

«He has a personality that is similar to my personality on how you engage other people to get them to play outside of who they are,» Lewis told ESPN.

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Smith has modeled his game after Lewis since high school. He watched film of Lewis and studied his motivational talks to try to equal his intensity.

Smith even bought a deck of playing cards after hearing Lewis tell a childhood story about how he bulked up by flipping over cards. If it was a six, Lewis did six pushups. If the next card