Whether the cryptic tweet helped grease the skids for the trade, we may never know. But the deal was done less than 90 minutes later and Smith deleted the post. In his first meeting with the Detroit media, Smith smiled and explained the post.

After weeks of speculation, veteran defense end Za'Darius Smith was traded from the Cleveland Browns to Detroit Lions earlier this week, ahead of the expiration of the NFL's traded deadline. On the morning that the trade went down though,

One of the NFL's top defensive ends, Za'Darius Smith, arrived to Detroit Lions from the Cleveland Browns on the final day of the trade deadline. One of the NFL‘s breakout teams, the Detroit Lions, made a highly successful move on the final day of the trade deadline by adding one of the league’s top defensive ends,

Za'Darius Smith first heard about the Lions' interest in him shortly after Aidan Hutchinson's injury. Finally in Detroit, he's eager to see the field.

The big NFL trade deadline move, with the Browns trading Za’Darius Smith to the Lions, was weeks in the making