Bears News: Roquan Smith gets the money he deserves

Besides Justin Fields (who we are still learning about), Roquan Smith was the only good Chicago Bears first-round draft pick made by Ryan Pace. Unfortunately, with Pape rightfully gone, the new regime had no interest in paying him what he deserved for an extension.

Instead, in a tanking effort, the Bears traded Smith to the Baltimore Ravens. They are one of the best teams in the NFL and he has to be having a lot more fun there than he was having in Chicago. They actually are a winning organization that knows what they are doing, unlike this Bears team.

We have to have hope for Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus but nobody before them gives anyone a reason to trust that these guys will magically work out. It would have been nice to see them pay Smith what he deserves but you can also understand why they didn’t. He wasn’t their guy.

On Tuesday, it came out that Smith had signed a contract for five years and 100 million dollars. This includes 45 million fully guaranteed and 60 million in total guarantees. This is a great contract for Smith and the Ravens as he is now the highest-paid off-ball linebacker in the NFL.

Former Bears star Roquan Smith is going to be with the Ravens for a while.

The Ravens had to know they wanted to sign him long-term when they made the trade with the Chicago Bears and now they did. That is amazing for them as neither side has to worry about it during the off-season one bit. It can be all about football for Smith going forward.

Now, the Ravens are getting ready for a big-time road matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. This will be the second week in a row that these two teams play against each other in Cincinnati because they just so happened to be a week 18 matchup as well.

Roquan Smith has only played in a couple of playoff games so far and the Bears lost them all. Now is his chance to make a big impact in a huge game once again. The Bengals are better than the Ravens and they are significantly better than them if Lamar Jackson isn’t healthy enough to play.

As mentioned before, Smith deserves this contract. He also deserves respect around the NFL as he is one of the best linebackers in the league. Now that he has his money locked up, it is time to play some ball.