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CHICAGO
One week ago, LB ROQUAN SMITH was crying over the departure of DE ROBERT QUINN. Today, it is Smith who is leaving Chicago – and the Bears are paying him to do so:
The Baltimore Ravens filled the biggest void in the middle of their defense with the NFL’s leading tackler.
The Ravens acquired Chicago Bears linebacker Roquan Smith on Tuesday, sending the Bears a second- and a fifth-round pick in 2023 for Smith, who tops the NFL with 83 tackles this season.
As part of the trade, the Ravens also sent linebacker A.J. Klein to Chicago.
Smith was owed $5.408 million for the rest of the season. As part of the trade agreement, the Bears are paying Smith $4.833 million while the Ravens are paying him the league-minimum $575,000 for the rest of the season, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Jeff Howe of The Athletic grades the trade:
The Ravens and Bears kicked off trade-deadline week with a doozy.
Baltimore acquired linebacker Roquan Smith for second- and fifth-round draft picks and linebacker A.J. Klein. So, after negotiations broke down for a contract extension, the Bears flipped Smith for future capital to aid their rebuild.
The deal
The Ravens received:
• LB Roquan Smith
The Bears received:
• 2023 second-round draft pick
• 2023 fifth-round draft pick
• LB A.J. Klein
Why they made the move
Smith leads the NFL with 83 tackles, including four for loss, and he has 2.5 sacks, two interceptions and three pass breakups. The only linebacker in the league with multiple picks and sacks, Smith has been productive in multiple facets and should further excel with the Ravens’ typically aggressive defensive scheme.
The Ravens are ranked 20th in points allowed and 25th in yards allowed, and they needed a boost. The uncharacteristically average defense can partly be attributed to coordinator Wink Martindale’s departure, but their statistical rankings were comparable in 2021.
It’s also evident the Ravens view Smith as part of their long-term plans, based on the compensation. A defense headlined by Smith, Calais Campbell, Patrick Queen, Odafe Oweh, Marcus Peters and Kyle Hamilton should have stout potential.
Trade grade (Ravens): Incomplete
If the Ravens extend Smith at a reasonable cost, this trade could reach B-plus/A-minus territory. However, Smith was believed to be asking for nearly $20 million annually over the summer.
Can the Ravens convince him to take less by offering a more direct path to the playoffs than Smith saw in Chicago? Even if Smith tests the market and realizes that money isn’t out there, a return to Baltimore should be viewed as a victory.
Or will Smith — as is his right — use his leverage and command top dollar? Players understand teams have an urgency to keep a player long-term after giving up a quality asset such as a second-round draft pick.
If the Ravens only have Smith as a half-season rental and don’t win the Super Bowl, there should be some buyer’s remorse, unless Smith helps them yield a third-round compensatory pick in 2024.
Trade grade (Bears): A-minus
The Bears are still in the early stages of a challenging rebuild, and it would go against conventional thinking in this era to build a roster around one of the league’s highest-paid inside linebackers.
Their quickest path back to the playoffs will be developing Fields, who has shown flashes of star potential but quite frankly doesn’t have enough support around him.
The Bears might be in a position to draft the best offensive player (non-quarterback division) in 2023, and the pair of second-rounders will also be valuable if they hit. Plus, they’re projected to have about $110 million in cap space, so they can become major players in free agency.
The writing has been on the wall with Smith. He probably wasn’t staying in Chicago beyond this season. Even if the Bears found themselves in the playoff race, their ceiling would have been limited. Moving Smith will help the rebuild if they can hit on their quality draft picks.
Jason Leiser of the Chicago Sun-Times is not as sunny in his estimation of the trade:
The Bears needed a full teardown. That’s why the general manager position was open for Ryan Poles in the first place. There was little worth clinging to on a roster that bottomed out under Ryan Pace’s watch, and the delusion of believing they were close only made Poles’ rebuild more difficult.
So the painful departures of Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn were inevitable and sensible.
But Roquan Smith’s departure? That’s regrettable and counterproductive.
By trading Smith to the Ravens for second- and fifth-round picks plus linebacker A.J. Klein, Poles flipped the best, most surefire player on his roster for some maybes. It’s the first move he has made that works against his renovation project at Halas Hall.
Hey, maybe he’ll turn one of those draft picks into someone as good as, you know, Smith.
It’s a trade that illustrates how far the Bears are from doing anything meaningful on the field.
If anyone was disgusted by their defense in the 49-29 loss to the Cowboys, get ready for it to plunge to new nauseating levels. At this point, there’s no longer even a shred of doubt that they’ll benefit more from losses than wins, and that’ll be tough for viewers to stomach.
Meanwhile, the Ravens aspire to something significant. They have an MVP-winning quarterback in Lamar Jackson, they lead their division and they’re always shooting for the Super Bowl.
Bears never fell in love with Roquan Smith
It hasn’t always worked out, but imagine following a team that’s always going for it. Imagine the team’s moves almost always making sense. Bears fans usually have to resort to imagining.
The Ravens had a strong core with Jackson and have fortified their roster with five first- or second-round picks over the last two drafts. Now they’re adding.
Teams that have a quarterback will race to put as much talent around him as possible. Teams that don’t — or, in the Bears’ case, aren’t sure — are sellers. They have to wait.
Perpetual waiting is the worst of the Bears’ traditions.
The state of the team is mostly on Pace. Poles was hired to clean up his mess, and that’s a multiyear undertaking. He has been steadfast in his plan to free up future salary-cap space and stockpile draft picks. It’s fine to clear out players he didn’t pick, but Smith wasn’t part of the problem — just the opposite.
He’s a top-tier defensive weapon still ascending at 25, and there’s no question about how good and versatile he is after the last five seasons. He could have been the centerpiece of coach Matt Eberflus’ defense for years.
The Ravens wanting him essentially confirms that. They have a reputation for getting it right.
Meanwhile, Poles is asking for a lot of faith along the way, and as a first-time GM, he hasn’t earned that yet. The only track record he has is the one he’s putting together now.
Smith is more established. Everyone knows what he can do, and his star will shine even brighter in Baltimore.
Poles certainly will rationalize the trade internally because he didn’t want to allocate a $100 million contract extension at what he considers a non-premium position.
When Smith didn’t get an extension during what he felt were disrespectful negotiations with Poles, he ended his “hold-in” by declaring he was determined to hit free agency. But Poles won that clash on two fronts: He got Smith back on the field without budging, and the team had the option of going year to year with him by using the franchise tag.
What was the point of playing hardball only to trade him in the middle of the season?
The Bears obviously weren’t going to contend this season, and Poles’ priority is identifying which players could be pillars in 2023 and beyond. He went into this season with few concrete answers, but Smith was one of them. He was a known talent, and erasing him from the blueprint leaves the Bears’ future more unclear than it already was.
– – –
The trade winds are not only blowing out in Chicago. ESPN.com:
The Chicago Bears are acquiring wide receiver Chase Claypool in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers, a source told ESPN’s Field Yates on Tuesday.
The Steelers are getting the Bears’ second-round pick in return for Claypool, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The 2020 second-round pick has caught 32 passes for 311 yards and a touchdown for the Steelers this season. He also threw for a touchdown and has 55 yards rushing on eight carries.
Claypool, 24, was at practice Tuesday afternoon and briefly spoke with the media at his locker afterward about his bye week approach and discussions among the wide receiver room.
He left the locker room shortly after the interview. With a few minutes left in the open locker room period, news broke that the wide receiver was heading to Chicago. The room was emptying out, but players who were still around got noticeably quieter, including a group of receivers huddled around a phone.
Claypool moved to the slot in his third season with the Steelers, and he had just one receiving touchdown this season. In Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Claypool threw a touchdown pass to fullback Derek Watt.
His best game came against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when he recorded seven catches on seven targets for 96 yards.
Without Claypool, Steelers receiver Miles Boykin will likely get more targets.
A 2 for Claypool seems a bit high, but what does the DB know.
Here is what Josina Anderson heard:
@JosinaAnderson
As of 8am this morning I’m told “it was looking like Green Bay was potentially going to offer the best deal for Chase (Claypool),” per league source. Obviously the #Bears have swooped in and nabbed the #Steelers WR.
@JosinaAnderson
Added background: From what I am hearing, and been hearing over the last week the #Steelers moved on from what they felt like was somewhat of a ‘distraction’ behind-the scenes. I’m told the Claypool move has been on the table “for at least two weeks,” per league source.
This from Adam Schefter:
@AdamSchefter
The second-round pick that Chicago traded to Pittsburgh for WR Chase Claypool is its own pick, not the second-round pick that the Bears received from the Ravens for Roquan Smith, per source. |
