Chicago Bears: 5 major impacts of Roquan Smith holdout

Smith is missing valuable practice time

The Bears and their coaching staff can give as many “fluff” answers as they want about Smith being able to study his playbook while away from the team, but we all know those responses are completely bogus.

There is an enormous difference between simply knowing your playbook inside out and actually being on the field. Knowing the scheme is one thing; knowing tendencies of your teammates is another. The practice time missed for Smith, right now, has so much more of an impact than just learning the defense.

Knowing your teammates is crucial. Knowing tendencies of your teammates, how they go about reacting to certain calls — these are the things being missed by Smith that you can’t make up for sitting on your couch reading a playbook.

Smith very well could be good enough to miss all this time and be plugged right in as soon as he comes back, without missing a beat. Heck, look at how Bosa is turning out. I’d say Bosa is doing just fine.

But, this has become more than missing just a few practices. We’re now talking about a preseason game and potentially more practices to come. Smith not being in camp is a very, very serious problem that cannot be overlooked and undersold by the organization.