PFF Recognition for Roquan Smith at Last

Roquan Smith's 2020 success has him pointed toward the elites at his position and even his critics at Pro Football Focus have recognized this.

Roquan Smith has arrived.

Actually, he arrived in 2018 to those paying closer attention but Pro Football Focus has its own agenda and hadn't deemed him worthy of its notice until now.

Smith this week made it onto the top 10 linebacker list for PFF. This took some doing because they downgraded him throughout 2018 and 2019 even though objective statistical analysis showed outstanding production for a rookie and second-year linebacker.

PFF is ranking Smith eighth overall, only a year after their grading system said he played worse than Blake Martinez.

"A coverage star coming out of college, Roquan Smith took a while to show that kind of impact play at the NFL level, but we saw it plenty in 2020," PFF's Sam Monson wrote, pointing out the 84.0 pass coverage grade his organization gave him.

It just wouldn't be a PFF article without a backhanded complement or outright slam of a Bears player.

In one week... welcome BACK to #1920FootballDr. pic.twitter.com/fPNUkJYHdY

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 28, 2021

PFF said Smith had a passer rating against when targeted last year of 75.8 but they must be watching old film. According to Sportradar, the league's official stat partner, Smith had a passer rating against that good in 2019. They have his passer rating against when targeted at 59.6 last year, as well as an outstanding 63.3% completion percentage.

PFF says Smith last year had a passer rating against that was 30 points lower than the average linebacker, which counts for something.

The linebacker grades for PFF have always been far too harsh on rookies and far too lenient on veterans. 

It's the reason someone like Bobby Wagner gets graded much better than Smith by PFF after making 17 fewer solo tackles, 11 fewer tackles for loss and, according to Sportradar, in pass coverage allowed a higher passer rating against (88.9) and completion percentage (64.2) than Smith did.

Hey, other than than that, Wagner had a much better year than Smith.

In real football and not scratchings on paper or cybernetic gobbledygook, Smith has been a strong pass coverage linebacker since the night in 2018 when he picked off a Jared Goff pass to help the Bears dominate the Los Angeles Rams in a 15-6 win.

Smith's level of play hit peak stride by the middle of last season and the Bears greatly missed his presence in the playoff game against the New Orleans Saints due to an elbow injury. 

"Not having Roquan at the end, as good as he was playing and just the leader he is and captain he is on the field, that was significant," Bears GM Ryan Pace said.

PFF LB RANKINGS

There's no telling what their defense could have done in that game against a faltering Drew Brees with Smith at linebacker instead of Manti Te'o, who hadn't played a down all season and never played a down before that in the Bears defense.

Projecting Smith's 2021 season can only begin at a high point and point upward.

Playing with a nose tackle as good as Eddie Goldman in front of him will only make his run defense all the better.

"Well, I knew Roquan when he was coming out of college," new Bears linebacker coach Bill McGovern said. "I scouted him, went down there, worked him out, all that stuff, when he was at Georgia. I obviously knew he was quite a talent.

"You could see—he'd been playing better and better, obviously really showed up a lot more last year. Again, we're looking for great things from him this year. He was a guy that everybody in the profession knows who he is."

And apparently now even PFF does.

Roquan Smith at a Glance

Career: Fourth season; 361 combined tackles, 253 solo tackles, 31 tackles for loss, 13 quarterback hits, 11 sacks, 14 pass defenses, four interceptions, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery.

2020: 139 total tackles, 98 solo tackles, 18 tackles for loss, six quarterback hits, four sacks, seven pass defenses, two interceptions, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery.

Key Number: 2. As in two more years under contract. The Bears picked up his fifth-year option in the spring so they'll have Smith through 2022 at the very least.

2021 Projection: 149 tackles, 103 solo tackles, 21 tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, three sacks, nine pass defenses, two interceptions, one forced fumble.

WHAT DOES MARQUISE GOODWIN PROJECT TO DO WITH THE BEARS?

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