NEWSLETTER
Khalil Mack may have been causing havoc in the backfield with his relentless pursuit of Russell Wilson and Prince Amukamara might’ve come away with the biggest play of the night (a game-sealing pick-six in the fourth quarter), but on a night where the Bears honored the legacy of Brian Urlacher, rookie first-rounder Roquan Smith looked like he fit the mold of the next great inside linebacker for a franchise with a rich tradition at that position.
Smith, 21, earned his first career NFL start on Monday night and picked up where he left off in Week 1 against the Packers. The Bears’ first-round pick played on 89.4 percent of the team’s defensive snaps and racked up a team-leading seven solo tackles. Pro Football Focus notes that Smith’s best efforts came against the run, where he picked up four tackles and two defensive stops. And for good measure, he tacked on a quarterback hurry on the one snap in which he was asked to blitz and rush the passer.
Even after a showing off his skills in all facets of his game, Smith still knows he has some kinks to work out in his game moving forward: “I felt I did OK. I still made some mistakes, so those are on my mind,” Smith said, via Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times. “The victory’s great though and I’m enjoying it. But I know I’ve got work to do.”
Monday’s 59-snap run for Smith represented his most game action since Georgia played Alabama in the college football national championship game. A chunk of Smith’s snaps came in coverage, getting in on 42 of the game’s 47 passing snaps. But more notable might have been Smith’s presence on 17 of 19 rush snaps. And because Smith saw an increase in playing time, someone had to see theirs get cut. Nick Kwiatkoski saw his snap share go from 47 in Week 1 to just nine in Week 2. Kwiatkoski still has a niche role in the defense as one of the better run-stopping linebackers in the group, but he’ll take a back seat to Smith and Danny Trevethan – especially if Smith continues to play as well as he has in his first two games.
Smith has wasted no time making plays in the Bears defense, proving once again that it was only a matter of time before the contract impasse that kept him out of training camp became an afterthought. And the hamstring injury that eliminated the possibility of playing catch-up in preseason games, well, that seems like a distant memory, too.
Monday’s game against the Seahawks might be one where we look back one day and see it as a passing of the torch. At minimum, the Bears’ newest inside linebacker looked like someone who could be the next great one for a franchise full of them.
