Bears trade star linebacker Roquan Smith to Baltimore, per report

The roster teardown at Halas Hall isn’t over yet.

The Bears on Monday traded linebacker Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for a 2023 second-round draft pick, a 2023 fifth-round draft pick and linebacker A.J. Klein, according to multiple reports. The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first reported the trade.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles continues his teardown of this Bears team, with an eye toward the future. The move comes less than a week after the Bears traded Pro Bowl pass rusher Robert Quinn to Philadelphia. Both Quinn and Smith were team captains.

With a pair of 2023 draft picks coming their way in exchange for Smith, the Bears currently have nine selections in next spring’s draft, including two second-round picks, two fourth-round picks and two fifth-round picks.

Smith’s longterm future with the team has been up in the air from the minute Poles took over as GM in January. Former Bears GM Ryan Pace drafted Smith out of Georgia with the eighth overall pick in 2018. The 2022 season marked the final year of his rookie contract. Smith initially sat out the first several weeks of training camp, hoping to pressure the Bears into giving him a contract extension.

When the Bears and Smith, who operated as his own agent, couldn’t come to an agreement on a new deal, Smith publicly asked for a trade in August. Poles declined to deal Smith at the time. Following several weeks in a standoff, Smith agreed to put the contract talk aside and return to football. He said he planed to “bet on myself” in playing out the final year of his deal.

On Monday, his time with the Bears came to an end. The move came about 24 hours ahead of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline.

A Bears defense that allowed 49 points against the Cowboys on Sunday just traded its best player. In the short-term, things could be ugly. Smith was twice a second-team All-Pro performer in Chicago. He currently leads the NFL with 83 combined tackles. He also has two interceptions, 2.5 sacks and three passes defended this season. He was the Bears’ best inside linebacker since Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher, and he’s only 25 years old.

Smith played every single defensive snap for the Bears through the first eight weeks of the season. Some combination of Nicholas Morrow, Matt Adams, Jack Sanborn and Joe Thomas will have to fill that production. Add Klein, the Ravens linebacker included in the trade, into the mix, too. Klein, 31, has started 81 games during his career for multiple teams, but hasn’t consistently started since 2020. Head coach Matt Eberflus will have his hands full deciding how to replace Smith.

Once this season started, Smith’s contract dispute might have taken a back seat, but it never fully went away. Poles’ only other option, if he and Smith couldn’t agree on a deal, would’ve been to use the franchise tag on Smith. That would’ve forced Smith into a one-year contract, but Smith still could’ve held out.

Trading him gives the Bears more ammunition in the draft. It also places a big bet on Poles’ ability to identify talent in the draft. Draft picks, even high ones, are never a sure thing. The Bears have nine draft picks and $120 million in salary cap space available in 2023. The general assumption was that Smith would take up about $20 million of that cap space. Now? The possibilities are endless.

Poles might not be done yet, either, because he still has until the 3 p.m. Tuesday trade deadline to make moves.

Speaking hours after the Quinn trade last week, Poles indicated he wasn’t sure if he would be done making moves or not.

“I know we’ve got a few more days left,” Poles said then. “There’s not a ton going on right now. So I feel good about where we’re at.”

Monday shows that the phones tend to heat up as the deadline approaches.

The Bears don’t have many trade chips remaining, but they do have some important ones such as running back David Montgomery (who is also in the final year of his contract) and All-Pro safety Eddie Jackson.

Poles is pretty clearly in rebuild mode. At this point, after trading Smith, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see anyone go.