Chicago Bears: Round-by-round draft grades for each pick

Roquan Smith

Inside linebacker

Grade: A+

Smith was looking like a possibility for the Bears weeks leading up to the draft. There were names like defensive end Marcus Davenport, outside linebacker Harold Landry, cornerback Denzel Ward, and offensive guard Quenton Nelson. Smith was the best player available at a position that could use an upgrade.

When you put the highlight tape on the one thing that stands with Smith is his instincts. Smith is a pure read and react linebacker. He diagnoses the play before the snap and already knows where he has to finish the pursuit at.

Smith is also a violent blitzer to the quarterback. He uses his speed and quickness to get after the quarterback. You can expect defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to use Smith creatively in his blitz packages.

Smith also will make the Bears secondary better with his speed and athleticism roaming over the middle of the field. While he is undersized, the speed and athleticism make up for that. He can effectively erase running backs coming out the backfield and cover tight ends across the middle of the field.

While Smith has a lot of strengths to his game, he is susceptible to getting stuck on blockers mainly because of his size. This why it’s important for Smith to have the field awareness, instincts, and speed to get to the spot before blockers can get a body on him.

Smith will immediately be a day one starter at the jack linebacker position while Danny Trevathan takes over the middle linebacker spot. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Smith gets the green dot on his helmet (defensive signal caller) day one also.