Amateur Hour: The Roquan Smith Talks
The amateur hour that is Roquan Smith's contract negotiation seemed to go even deeper down the rabbit hole with a report by Pro Football Talk that an unsanctioned person is calling teams to seek trade offers.
PFT's Mike Florio said a person "purporting to represent Smith has been calling other teams in order to gauge potential trade interest."
The person wasn't identified, but Smith fired his agency long before he went on a "hold-in" during this training camp or requested the Bears to trade him.
The Bears are not trying to trade Smith, who is trying to negotiate his own extension.
GM Ryan Poles said it's his intention to sign Smith.
The Bears have not given permission to Smith to seek a trade, so any team talking to this person who was not identified in PFT's story runs the risk of facing tampering charges for talking with a player who is currently under contract. The league can take away draft picks and cash from a team guilty of such violations.
According to the PFT report, because this person hasn't been certified as an agent by the NFLPA he can't represent Smith or any other player.
It's been apparent Smith has been getting advice from someone as he tries to negotiate his own contract.
Smith is running the risk of being fined by not participating in practices now. At first, the Bears put him on the physically unable to perform list and he couldn't be fined for missing practices. He was removed from it after he made public through NFL Network's Ian Rapoport on Twitter that he wants to be traded because he sees the Bears' offers as a lack of respect.
The offer wasn't revealed but Rapoport reported it was backloaded, meaning much of the money was in later years and as a result the player ran the risk of never collecting that cash.
Smith has failed to practice only once since being removed from the PUP list. He can be fined $40,000 per missed practice. The $40,000 figure is in the collective bargaining agreement but such fines for players still on their rookie contracts can be forgiven by the team. Missed preseason games can cost a player even more, although Smith most likely wouldn't have played in this week's preseason opener because he hasn't practiced yet.
When Khalil Mack was holding out in 2018 before being traded by the Raiders, he was subject to $814,000 in fines for preseason game missed but, of course, he was traded to the Bears so it didn't matter.
Smith is not scheduled to be a free agent until 2023. His "hold-in" is being staged because he wants a contract extension. The Bears can retain rights to him in 2023 by applying the franchise tag.
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