Another Day, Another Roquan Smith Snub

It's a good thing Bears linebacker Roquan Smith isn't represented by the people at NFL.com.

Who actually does represent Smith is a good question, since he had no agent according to the NFLPA as of the start of this week.

However, his contract expires after this season and the people at NFL.com, Adam Schein in particular, apparently think he's not among the top young NFL players who should get contract extensions.

There definitely is some rather heady company in Smith's situation.

Considering NFL.com's Schein made his article the top nine players who should be exteneded, would it have been completely absurd to round it off to top 10 and include Smith?

So they've apparently gone out of their way not to include him.

The list is impressive enough at the start with Nick Bosa, Deebo Samuel, Lamar Jackson, Quenton Nelson and Terry McLaurin on it.

The 49ers' Samuel apparently isn't happy with his plight as he's done the customary pull-down of all mentions of his current team from his social media.

That's sure to upset the 49ers beyond comprehension.

This list of Schein's includes Brian Burns, Jaire Alexander, A.J. Brown and Jeffery Simmons but doesn't include Smith.

So it's a list best tossed in the trash.

Smith has been slighted by the popularity contest that is the Pro Bowl so far only because the NFC had a couple players at his position each of the last two seasons who had been wildly popular and received the benefit of the automatic button being pushed by fans. That's Fred Warner and Bobby Wagner who were being given lifetime status.

Smith had better stats than both in 2020 and didn't get the Pro Bowl. All-Pro voters had better judgment and had him first or second team All-Pro each of the last two seasons, and that's a tougher nut to crack than the Pro Bowl.

That aside, McLaurin and Brown are good receivers but Smith is the unquestioned leader of the Bears defense and has been over the past two seasons.

Smith is probably their best defensive player, Robert Quinn's 18 1/2 sacks included.

Smith tied for second in the NFL in tackles for loss in 2020 and led all NFC linebackers then. The only NFL linebackers with more solo tackles in 2020 than Smith were Tampa Bay's Devin White and Lavonte David and Houston's Zach Cunningham. Smith was fourth in the NFC in solo tackles in 2021 but Wagner and Warner weren't ahead of him.

Schein calls for Alexander to get an extension but not Smith, and Alexander doesn't even have more interceptions than Smith. He's a cornerback. He has no other real job besides defending the pass.

Certainly Alexander should be extended, too, but he's missed 17 games in four seasons and Smith has as many interceptions while playing linebacker. They both have five.

Brown has caught 24 touchdown passes in three years but he's never even had a catch total higher than what Darnell Mooney had last year (81) and last year had fewer receiving yards (869 to Mooney's 1,055).

They're calling for a new contract for Tennessee's Jeffery Simmons and Carolina's Brian Burns and neither one is even out of contract until the year 2024.

Simmons made 13 1/2 sacks in three years. If that's the qualifier, the Bears should have been giving a lifetime contract to Akiem Hicks when he had 23 1/2 sacks in a three-year stretch playing on the inside.

Burns made 25 1/2 sacks in three years and looks like a future standout he hasn't arrived yet except for the Pro Bowl status he had last year with nine sacks, 9 1/2 less than Quinn had at the position for the Bears.

The problem with Schein's list is it reads like he took a couple of Pro Bowl rosters and tried to find names who might be entering the end of their rookie contracts or who are young and had big seasons.

People who were overlooked for deserved Pro Bowl status got left off this list as well as his.

NINE WAYS TO SNUB ROQUAN SMITH

Being overlooked has been Smith's lot in life throughout his NFL career to date. George McCaskey didn't overlook him when he announced the firing of Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace. He made special mention of the efforts by Smith and David Montgomery.

Montgomery also deserves an extension, but he's a running back and they're treated like yesterday's newspaper now or any newspaper for that matter.

The Bears can and need to find a way to make sure Smith isn't overlooked sometime between now and the start of the season with an extension, whether he's on that short-sighted NFL.com list or not.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven