The Bears drafted Roquan Smith three years ago to help Packer-proof the defense. The inside linebacker’s uncanny ability to plaster himself onto receivers and run sideline to sideline was a perfect counterpoint to Aaron Rodgers’ point guard-like passes to, save for Davante Adams, mostly anonymous receivers and tight ends.
Smith has since grown into the quarterback of the Bears defense, a player that knows what his teammates are supposed to do on every given play. This year, he’s found his voice in practice, barking instructions to make sure his linemen are in the right spots. On game days, he makes audibles and corrections that most linebackers don’t make.
Sunday, he’ll meet his match — or more — in Rodgers, who uses his voice and pointer fingers to conduct an empty-stadium symphony before every snap. Smith will rely on hours of Packers film study to decide, in real time, exactly how to adjust to Rodgers’ audibles.
“We obviously know this guy makes a lot of adjustments at the line …” Smith said Wednesday. “It’s just more so about just identifying formations and keys and tendencies and just recognizing what they like to do in certain situations.
“And also about just playing what you get not like assuming or anything like that. Just playing what you see.”
Rodgers remembers preparing for the 2018 season-opener against the Bears and rooting for Smith, who had held out during training camp, not to play.
“Just because you knew the talent level he had,” Rodgers said. “He’s a special, special player. ...
“Roquan is just so talented sideline to sideline. He’s a dynamic player who’s been ascending since he got there.”
Smith sacked the Packers’ DeShone Kizer on his first snap as a pro.
It didn’t go well last time the Bears went to Lambeau Field. Last month, Smith had only five tackles — and all were assisted. In the five games before, he averaged 11.25. In the four since, he’s averaged 9.25. Inside linebackers coach Mark DeLeone called it one of only two games this year in which Smith didn’t make a play “that could potentially give us a chance to win.”
Asked what the Packers did to slow him then, coach Matt LaFleur wasn’t sure — “That’s a great question,” he said — but called him “one of the premier linebackers” in the NFL. LaFleur pointed to Sunday’s game against the Jaguars, in which Smith had a momentum-changing interception in the second quarter and a victory-sealing pick in the third quarter.
“He’s just a complete player, both in the run game and in the pass game,” LaFleur said. “He does a great job of, he’s got great instincts. He can diagnose things really quickly and then when he sees it, he goes.
“He can go out and he can cover backs or tight ends and he can get up in their face and bump ’em. Rarely do you find guys that can do that.”
Smith’s 97 solo tackles trail only the Texans’ Zach Cunningham — by one — for the NFL lead. He’s the only player in the top 17 of solo tackles to have two interceptions and at least one forced fumble, fumble recovery and sack.
Smith, though, wasn’t one of the two NFC inside linebackers named to the Pro Bowl last week — the Seahawks’ Bobby Wagner, a future Hall of Famer, the 49ers’ Fred Warner made the team. His coaches believe he’ll make the all-pro list.
Smith said, unconvincingly, that the Pro Bowl omission didn’t anger him. A star turn Sunday would prove the snub for what it was.
“it’s not my job to vote myself in or anything like that,” Smith said. “Controlling the things that I can control, going out, busting my tail each and every week and [doing] what I can to put the world on notice. But it is what it is — and it’s just more motivation for myself and for my teammates.”
