Roquan Smith news is a terrible look for the new Bears’ regime

The Chicago Bears have been an inept franchise for most of their history. They won the Super Bowl in 1985 and act like that is good enough forever. They have had mostly terrible quarterback play for the better part of three decades and are only now trying to truly address it the right way.

Now, they have a new regime in charge as Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus took over as the GM and head coach during the offseason. Since then, they have begun tearing it down to build it back up. So far, things have been shaky.

One of the players that their former GM put in place that wasn’t terrible was Roquan Smith. He is a linebacker that came from the University of Georgia. He is Ryan Pace’s only elite first-round pick from his tenure (hopefully, Justin Fields becomes that as well).

It came out on Tuesday afternoon that Roquan Smith has requested a trade away from the Chicago Bears. He feels that he is being disrespected in his contract negotiations and now he wants out. This is horrible news for the franchise that drafted him.

The Chicago Bears would be a worse team without Roquan Smith there in 2022.

Smith is probably the best player on the Chicago Bears right now. At worst, he is the second-best thing with Robert Quinn in the mix. However, Smith is one of the younger guys that can be built around which makes him valuable.

It doesn’t sound like Smith is going to be here for the good days (if there ever are any) which is a true shame. He could be a legit cornerstone on a winning team’s defense which is something that the Bears need desperately.

He also fits the scheme that Matt Eberflus wants to run. Of course, he isn’t a perfect player but he is one of the best linebackers in the league and is someone that can help them win. The new regime is not looking good right now because of this news.

Ryan Poles has made some good draft picks (we think) and inherited a bad situation left behind by the old regime. Smith doesn’t think that negotiations are going on in good faith and now he wants out. It is just a bad situation all around.

With all of this in mind, there is a chance that the new management team looks smart for this. If Roquan Smith wants to be the highest-paid linebacker ever, it would be hard to agree to that. If he goes elsewhere and proves to be worth less money than he gets, that will make the Bears look smart. We shall see.