Roquan Smith has been a microcosm of the Bears’ 2019 season.
With expectations of a giant leap after a promising rookie season in 2018, the second-year linebacker had a good-but-not-great start. Then there was a mystifying midseason lull after being a late scratch for an undisclosed personal issue in Week 4 against the Vikings. He returned the following week, but didn’t look like the same player he was in 2018.
He eventually regained that lost spark and quelled doubts about his mind-set and his future and then turned it up a notch late in the season. He had double-digit tackles in consecutive games against the Eagles, Lions and Rams — and a season-best 15-tackle, two-sack performance against the Lions on Thanksgiving. Roquan Smith — the eighth overall pick of the 2018 draft — was back.
And then it was over. Smith suffered a torn pectoral muscle in the first quarter against the Cowboys last Thursday night and was put on injured reserve, ending his 2019 season in disappointment.
The Bears as a team traversed a similar rocky road and seem destined for a similar fate — with slim playoff hopes entering the final three weeks of the season against the Packers (10-3) on the road, the Chiefs (8-5) at home and the Vikings (9-4) on the road. But if their prospects for 2020 are as good as Smith’s, they’ll certainly take it — because Roquan Smith, after a challenging second season, appears ready to reach another level in 2020. Even a Kahlil Mack/Akiem Hicks star level of impact.
“It’s there,” coach Matt Nagy said. “I know a lot of defensive coordinators that have come up to me and explained to me how bad they wished he was on their team, and the future he has ahead of him.
“There’s a lot of hard work involved to get to that point. But when you look at the traits that he has and his mental ability — the want — he’s got it all.”
Smith finished the season with 100 tackles, two sacks, five tackles-for-loss and one interception in 12 games. Particularly in his second-half run, he showed the sideline-to-sideline speed that combined with his knowledge of the game and linebacker instincts that elicits those superstar-level expectations.
“One thing you can say about Roquan is he will run sideline-to-sideline — he has a pair of wheels on him that just won’t stop, ” Hicks said. “That’s one of the things that separates him is he can get anywhere you need him to be — whether it’s [in] coverage or chasing a running back in the flats. It’s pretty impressive.”
Smith’s absence against the Vikings — a concern at midseason — is now a footnote. “We all have our own challenges on and off the field. He’s not the only one,” Nagy said. “But I like the fact that with his own personal challenges, he came out and I thought he had a good year.”
At the very least, Smith is back to where he was when he started — a former first-round pick with potential for greatness.
“I feel that way,” Nagy said. “You see it on tape — he’s really moving fast, flying around, making tackles. He’s violent. He’s always had instincts — that’s been his biggest strength — and he’s a violent tackler and it’s just going to be focusing on having the game slow down — just like it would for a quarterback — slow down a little bit there in the middle of the field.”
The question now is when Smith will be healthy again after suffering the torn pec. Nagy was unsure if Smith would be ready when the offseason program begins in earnest in April.
“You hope you can get him [back by then] so he can really get back on track in the offseason and get rolling,” Nagy said. “Because just like the rest of the guys on that defense he’s one of the guys that’s the glue there.”
