The Chicago Bears woke up on Saturday with their first preseason game on the slate. It is an exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field. It should be a lot of fun to have Bears football back, even though it doesn’t count for much.
What it does do, however, is bring what we’ve been seeing in practice to game type of situations. The biggest story from this camp season has not been a good one. Roquan Smith has requested a trade because contract negotiations are not getting anywhere.
Smith feels that he is being treated unfairly and that negotiations are not being done in good faith. He doesn’t have an agent representing him so it is hard to know what is actually going on here as that usually doesn’t go well for players.
For the next few weeks, we have to wait to see if the Bears will honor his request or convince him to stay by giving him a contract that he deems fair. Letting him go is a scary idea because he is an incredibly impactful player on this defense.
The Chicago Bears have some decisions to make on the defensive side of the ball.
He probably doesn’t deserve to be the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL but he does deserve to be paid amongst them. The Bears can’t ruin their salary cap for the next few years but they can give him a fair deal.
If they are forced to trade him, that might cause a trickle effect that isn’t great. There is no point to keep Robert Quinn if they don’t have Roquan Smith anymore. These are definitively the two best players on the team but there is no reason to have Quinn without Smith.
Quinn is an older player that was amazing for the Bears in 2021. Smith is a younger player that can be built around on the defensive side of the ball. While the Bears are rebuilding, keeping Quinn without Smith makes no sense because it will take longer to rebuild anyway.
They might as well try to get something good for Quinn if they have to tear the defense down to nothing anyway. It is a shame that this Bears team has come to this but it is where we are at this current point in time.
If both of these players are traded, you would assume that the future assets that are acquired by the Bears come in and make an impact one day.
Quinn is a great player but he isn’t at an age where you build around him so if Smith goes he should go too. If Smith stays, they both can stay and be a part of the team in 2023 where they might be pretty good.
