How come the announcers on Thursday Night Football are calling Roquan Smith the best linebacker in the league, but no one would call him that when he was on the Bears?
I know he’s better and has always been better than Warner, Williams, or anybody else, but on the Bears he’s only top 5 even though his stats were even better on the Bears.
At least the analysts should say they were wrong about Fred Warner being better or something! C’mon. He’s even regressed a little since joining the Ravens.
And how did we get fleeced? Roquan wanted more money than we gave both the linebackers we had and wanted out anyway because we suck. I say a mid level second is a win. Not all teams get to unload Chase Claypool level players for the #32 pick. Ok.
And the fact is the trade isn’t all that applies to the Bears. We gave up Roquan Smith. We got a second, a fifth, and a rental on Kline. But then because we didn’t pay Roquan we got Edmunds and Edwards.
It’s not a zero sum game in a trade. We traded the best linebacker in the league to fill out 4 holes on the worst defense in the league. Ultimately setting us up to also trade for and sign Sweat.
We traded Smith so we could have our current MLB1,WLB1, RDE1, SLB2, and RDT2 all on the roster performing well.
And this whole post is definitely copium because I loved Smith, but the Chiefs loved Hill, and they traded him to be able to field their now top 5 defense. And they have the 1 seed nearly locked up! We obviously don’t have Mahomes, but we have a chance to be a good team in the future with where we are both on the roster and in terms of draft capital in large part because of the Smith trade.
Of course if the coaching and Claypool trade are any indication, we’re gonna screw it up, but at least we have a chance. Especially if the Panthers continue to suck.
The copium
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Let it go
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If you had eyes, you could see he was a genuine talent.
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The NFL commentators love to blow the perceived top teams. The Bears are not that. As such, we will never really get any credit even when it’s deserved.
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They would say this when he was on the bears. Regularly.
No
I don’t miss Roquan one bit. I was at his last game as a Bear. Looked completely lost on the field. He’s a good player, but a head-case. The dude is his own agent which is DUMB.
This season he’s playing well. 62 solo tackles and 2 sacks. Oh wait sorry, that’s T.J. Edwards stat line for ten games. Roquan is at 61/1.5 in 11 games.
You think the best linebacker in the NFL looks lost in on the field?
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about if that’s your hornsy opinion watching him play
Go ahead and watch the All-22 of that game. Though to be fair, nobody on defense was doing anything.
Calm down there on the agent talk. As much as people like to make fun of him he is the highest paid linebacker in the NFL on a Superbowl contending team. I think it’s safe to say he represented himself pretty damn well.
😂 just shows you how people will talk out their ass when insulting someone. Makes me feel better about every time someone said shit about me
You are correct, even if it doesn’t matter.
I feel the same about listening to nfl pods (the athletic nfl show for sure) and hearing that he was a good player but a tier below Warner and Leonard and now he’s incredible and better than both according to the same people.
Maybe he’s gotten better but it feels like bad players get punished for being on bad teams
Because Al Michaels and company are a bunch of brain damaged morons. That’s why.
If you refuse to watch with them, they’ll be replaced.
No one cares when the team is bad, ĵust wait till Jaylon Johnson isn’t on the team
Adding Sweat to the trade compensation doesn’t make much sense. But one thing that’s overlooked is how it impacted our draft placement. We obviously didn’t win another game after the 11/1/22 trade, but 3 of our last 9 games were decided by a score difference of 3 or less points, which may have been a different story with the leader of our defense still in place and paid to be happy. We very well could’ve ended up with ~pick 5.
It is true roq didn’t get the recognition here. But he’s getting it now and I’m happy he’s in a place where he is. The ravens are a good team for him.
Because our organization lets good players go be great on other teams
and then keep dogshit awful players for years because you never know he might suddenly get 200% better
Excellent players on bad teams rarely get the prestigious crown of being the best at their position. If they do, it’s because it’s undeniable and they put up unrivaled stats. Megatron on shitty or mediocre Lions teams comes to mind.
Roquan was a good player for the Bears. I wish him well with the Ravens. Do I miss him? Sure. However, while a tackling machine, Roquan never generated the turnovers like Briggs or Urlacher. Those guys are the gold standard of LB play. If he did, Poles never would’ve let him leave.
He helped make their D elite, there’s no denying it unless you’re a hater.
He was great with the bears and is great with the ravens. That said I’m glad he is gone due to his cap hit. Nfl has changed and lb is not a position you dedicate money to. Every one knows this …I live near Baltimore and love that they have to pay him and lamar all that money.
Also ravens fans are such whiny little assbags. Complain about everything and they are always a winning team. Spoiled fan base. They laugh and pity the bears.
They also think they invented their chant which is total BS
Wait. The R-A-V-E-N-S chant? Or the OH-OH-OH-OH-OHOOH chant?
That’s what happens to players that are good at what they do when the teams they are on are winning games
Totally agree, NOBODY thought he was a top linebacker when he was on the Bears. If they did he would have been deemed All Pro which he never was.
To just look at the trade at face value is a gross oversimplification. The trade was the last step in a broken relationship to try to get something for him. The reality it seems is, rightly or wrongly, Poles wasn’t sure he wanted to keep Roquan and Roquan got offended, and the relationship ruptured. At that point, we had to salvage anything we can to get something for him rather than just lose him in free agency. Hence the trade. I thought it was totally misrepresented as well.
I also would say, I liked Roquan a lot. Having seen Urlacher and Singletary play before him, I wouldn’t say Roquan was that level of a middle linebacker. He was good, but he would absolutely disappear in games and he did have trouble shedding blocks. I"m not at all saying he isn’t great but I would also not say he is the best middle linebacker in the league. Seems the pendulum swung the other way on him.