Dealing with Roquan Smith's Absence

The Bears are starting practices without their best defensive player and are trying to find the best way to approach the situation.

Make no mistake, the Bears will be hurting on defense if Roquan Smith misses an extended period of time

"Our leader," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said "I mean we all know who Roquan is and what he means to this team. But I mean at the end of the day somebody has to fill that gap. It's not different to me if he was injured or if he was missing a few weeks. During the game somebody has to step up, somebody has to fill that leadership role, somebody has to call the defense, somebody has to do it.

"I mean at the end of the day it's a early preparation of what could happen during the season. Somebody has to step up."

The Bears reported Tuesday for training camp and GM Ryan Poles didn't want to discuss Smith's reported holdout, only to say both the linebacker and veteran pass rusher Robert Quinn had shown up and were in the building.

It's possible this could be what has become known as a "hold-in," with Smith attending practices without going on the field to participate because he doesn't want to be injured without locking up a contract extension for beyond 2022.

Whatever the situation, it's not one a rebuilding team wants to deal with on Day 1 of training camp.

"So my feelings for Roquan don't change at all," Poles said. "I love the player and the person. And that won't change."

Even with all the love, Smith does not get a contract. This must be worked out between either himself and the team or his agent and the team, if he has an agent now. In the offseason he was either between agents or didn't have one.

Poles didn't want to go into whether Smith has an agent now or reveal anything about Smith's status with representation, but said: "If a player didn't have an agent, it would be a different situation than if they did."

If Smith is gone and he is obviously their best playmaker and leader, they'll need someone to step up. 

It might mean middle linebacker Nicholas Morrow moving over to Smith's weak side spot and another player manning the middle. This will be decided on the practice field.

"So to me, I look at opportunity," coach Matt Eberflus said. "So whenever I've had this in the past, where it's somebody is either not in or soft tissue injury or whatever that might be, what we have to do as coaches is look at opportunity. So what we should do is develop our depth."

Eberflus recalled something similar last year while serving as Colts defensive coordinator.

"Last year we had a key player out (of camp) and then we played a game on Christmas and the (backup) guy came in because he had all those reps in training camp and, man, he performed and we won the game and he was a big part of that," Eberflus said. "So we just look at it as opportunity, building our depth, having that spare at each position and that's how we look at it."

There's another side to the entire situation and that's Poles' handling of it.

After all, there are players coming up for extensions in future years, like Johnson is next year.

If the Bears don't handle their defensive leader's extension correctly, what can they hope to have happen?

"Of course you kind of want to see how the business is done, considering that this is a new staff," Johnson said. "Considering they haven't done too much business solely on their own.

"I mean, definitely, it is a start to kind of see what the business is going to look like around here. But at the end of the day everbody's situation is different."

At least for Poles one holdout situation ended.

Safety Jaquan Brisker, their second-round pick from Penn State, got his rookie contract signed and ended a holdout that extended past the rookie reporting date but did not go past the full-squad reporting date.

There was love professed by the GM for Brisker, too.

"I gave him a big hug when I saw him and I am excited for him and the direction he is going, just like all the other rookies that came in in the offseason," Poles said. "He's headed in the right direction and I am excited to see what he does this training camp and during the season."

The Bears have to hope the next Poles hug is reserved or Smith very soon.

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