Roquan Smith was the first inside linebacker drafted in the 1st round by the Chicago Bears since Brian Urlacher. No pressure right? Everybody knows the legacy this franchise has at that position. It’s littered with Hall of Famers. No other organization comes close. So Smith was faced with an immense legacy to live up to. He certainly made a strong first impression with 122 tackles as a rookie in 2018. Just a couple shy of Urlacher’s record.
Expectations were thus raised coming into 2019. However, for whatever reason the second-year linebacker got off to a slow start. He was late to react at times, missed some tackles and just wasn’t flying to the football like a year ago. Things were made even worse when he mysteriously missed the game against Minnesota for unspecified personal reasons. After that, he seemed to lose some of his juice.
Then everything changed. When? The moment Danny Trevathan went down with his gruesome elbow injury in the first game against Detroit. It’s almost like Smith knew with the defensive leader out, he’d have to step up. One look at the stat sheet says he’s done exactly that and way more.
Roquan Smith is literally everywhere right now
It’s almost like something clicked in Smith’s head at that point. Like he realized he couldn’t be the wingman anymore with Trevathan down. He had to take over the squadron himself. This might explain why his play has seen such a massive uptick. Here’s an illustration on the stat sheet.
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- Before the injury (8 games) – 67 tackles, 1 TFL
- After the injury (3 games) – 30 tackles, 1 INT, 2 sacks, 4 TFL
That is utter bananas. Think about this. Smith nearly produced half the tackles in the last three games that he’d produced in the fight eight. On top of that, he started to deliver far more impact plays in terms of sacks, interceptions, and tackles for a loss. This is the player the Bears envisioned him becoming when they took him 8th overall last year. Fast, fierce, and impossible to escape. If this trend holds. the Bears defense has yet another superstar in its mix. One who is just 22-years old.
