Roquan Smith Looking to Take Major Leap Forward
The only thing the Bears lost from their inside linebacker group over the offseason was proven depth.
The starters might even be better than last year, and it starts with Roquan Smith.
For some reason some analysts have championed the idea Smith is overrated or failing, and Pro Football Focus is chief among those.
Perhaps it looks good for their theory about Ryan Pace not knowing how to draft in the first round if Smith fails because it would mean all his first-rounders have failed, but Smith has hardly been a failure according to objective statistics.
Despite being given a terrible Pro Football Focus grade of 52.4 for Year 2, Smith had a season another objective source saw as better than 2018.
"I think sometimes we forget that he's 23 years old," Bears inside linebackers coach Mark DeLeone said. "You know what I mean? He's a young kid who is growing and maturing and is growing into his body still."
If Smith dropped in grade during 2019 from 64.2 to 52.4 like PFF said, how does SportRadar, the league's official stat partner, have him:
- Increasing the number of tackles made per total snaps played from 13.75% to 14.04%.
- Improved his passer rating against when targeted from 95.9 to 75.9, a decline of 20 points.
- Improve his completion percentage allowed when targeted from 73.2% to 67.2%. What's even more interesting here is the average depth of target against him dropped from 4.3 yards downfield to 3.0 yards downfield, which means it should be easier to complete the passes and he still lowered the percentage and passer rating
- Lowered his number of missed tackles from 9.7% to 3.8%. It was lower than Nick Kwiatkoski (11.6%) and Trevathan (4.1%).
Only Smith's pass rushing numbers seemed to get worse, and it was simply because the Bears didn't send him after quarterbacks as much with Chuck Pagano as the defensive coordinator. Also, when Danny Trevathan went out for the year for the final seven games, Smith had to play more in coverage until his own season-ending pectoral injury.
No matter how much Nick Kwiatkoski improved last year, he was a liability trying to cover more than 5 to 7 yards downfield against the pass and Smith was far better at doing it.
Smith still sees a need to improve and he's right, especially because after this year the Bears must decide on his fifth-year option. Pro Football Focus got this much right when they wrote an article placing Smith among 15 players going through "prove-it" years.
"I feel like everything, because everything can get better," he said. "As far as run plays, I feel like that can get better. Pass coverage, that can get better. I feel like it's everything my game can get better because there's never a time where you can get complacent and feel like 'I do this at this level,' regardless of how well you're doing something."
Perhaps more than consistently improving statistics, Smith needs to dazzle with bigger plays. He's had only a few, three interceptions including the playoffs and seven sacks in two years. Merely improving over Year 1 didn't do it for some skeptics.
"I'm just looking at all facets of my game and trying to be the best version of myself," Smith said.
Smith is viewed as the big-play guy while Trevathan is the steady veteran stabilizing force.
With Trevathan back from an elbow dislocation and Smith over the pectoral injury, the goal of the inside linebackers for this year has to be playing a full season and remaining healthy. The lack of any experienced backups at this position makes dependability as important as improvement for both Trevathan and Smith.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
