When you’re coming off a disappointing 2019 season, that included a 8-8 record and third-place finish in the NFC North, there’s plenty of blame to go around. There are several players and coaches on the Chicago Bears under pressure heading into the new year.
Obviously a lot of pressure falls on Chicago’s offense, as they were one of the worst units a season ago. But while the defense had a solid year, there’s still room for this defense to make improvement in 2020.
Pro Football Focus compiled a list of players that are entering prove-it years in 2020, which included Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith, whose sophomore campaign didn’t exactly go as planned.
When he came into the league, Roquan Smith looked tailor-made for the modern NFL — a linebacker who excelled in coverage in college with the athleticism, instincts and feel for the game to be a difference-maker at the next level. Yet, the player we saw at Georgia has yet to really show up in the NFL with any degree of regularity. Smith has made a lot of tackles and missed relatively few (17 in 234 attempts), but his PFF grades reflect a player still trying to find consistency, particularly in coverage where he was so special in college. A top-10 draft pick in 2018, Smith enters Year 3 needing to show the Bears he can be a difference-maker on defense — not just another body who is a relatively solid tackler.
Following an impressive rookie season, Smith suffered a setback in his sophomore year. After a slow start to the season, which included a healthy scratch in Week 5, Smith was playing some of the best football before he suffered a torn pectoral muscle that caused him to miss the final three games of the season.
Last season, Smith had a team-best 101 tackles, including five tackles for loss, two sacks, two passes defensed and an interception. While it was solid, it was far from what Smith expects from himself.
Smith says he has a “huge chip” on his shoulder heading into 2020, but he feels like he’s geared up for a bounce-back year. The former first-round pick will surely be playing for his next contract, and he’s determined to show why he’s worthy of sticking around.
“I just feel like I have a lot that I have to live up to myself — my personal goals and then team goals and things of that nature,” Smith said. “I’m definitely just trying to make this year my best year possible, better than any of the other years I’ve had, and just maximize myself.
“If I come out each and every week and play to my standard, I feel like everything else will just take care of itself. That’s my main thing, like, coming out and playing to my standard, doing whatever I can to control what I can, and not letting up anything. Just being relentless. Just putting everything on me.”
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