CHICAGO — General manager Ryan Poles said there was a “record-setting” piece to the contract the Chicago Bears offered Roquan Smith during training camp, when the inside linebacker made a public bid for a trade.
Some league sources since have said that word was the Bears made a solid offer, but all that really matters is how Poles viewed it. If he looked at it as a tip-top offer, then the Bears never were going to reach an agreement with Smith. So finding a trade partner in the Baltimore Ravens on Monday made all the sense in the world — and was probably more of a lucky development than anything else.
The Bears will ship Smith to the Ravens — and pay down his remaining 2022 salary by about $4 million — in exchange for second- and fifth-round draft picks in 2023 and inside linebacker A.J. Klein, who was on the New York Giants practice squad four weeks ago before the Ravens signed him.
