Chicago Bears: Experts are loving Roquan Smith

The Chicago Bears defense has regained its position as one of the best in the NFL. In fact one could say they’re among a few who are any good at all.

There are plenty of reasons for this. It starts with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio who continues to showcase his mastery of game planning, personnel management, and in-game adjustments. Then there’s star pass rusher Khalil Mack who continues to give offensive tackles nightmares. He has nine sacks this season despite missing two games with an ankle injury.

He’s joined by cornerback Kyle Fuller who leads the team with six interceptions, a career-high. He should make his first Pro Bowl. He’ll likely be joined by Eddie Jackson who leads the league with three defensive touchdowns and has established himself as one of the best coverage safeties in the game. Last but not least is Akiem Hicks, who has simply dominated the line of scrimmage all year long both as a run defender and interior pass rusher.

All of this has made it difficult to remember the inside linebackers. Danny Trevathan is having arguably his best season. He’s joined by 1st round pick Roquan Smith whom experts have ranked as one of the top rookies of 2018. ESPN put him at #9 overall in their latest list.

"“Smith has been increasingly active, especially in his past five starts, in one of the league’s most consistent defenses this season. The Bears’ front seven has created enough issues for quarterbacks and Vic Fangio’s group leads the league in interceptions.”"

Roquan Smith continues to defy football logic each week

Smith is also the 11th ranked rookie on NFL.com. So this isn’t favoritism. Everybody is seeing how well the #8 overall pick has played with 91 tackles and four sacks so far this season. It hasn’t been perfect, but the fact he’s producing at this pace shouldn’t be happening. Too many people forget that the rookie spent all of training camp and most of the preseason at home in Georgia, embroiled in a contract dispute with the organization.

Then when he finally did report for duty, he almost immediately injured his hamstring. As a result, he saw no preseason action and rarely practiced fully with the team before the regular season began. That’s why Nick Kwiatkoski started the year over him. It didn’t take long though for him to get on the field. Now he’s on the cusp of becoming just the second Bears rookie linebacker to post 100 or more tackles in a season during the Super Bowl era. The other? Brian Urlacher.

Pretty good company and another sign that GM Ryan Pace got that pick right.