Roquan Smith snatched a tipped pass out of the air Monday night, sprinted right and, 15 yards later, ran out of bounds. Then — with eight minutes left and his team blowing out the Patriots — it was time for Smith to celebrate.
The linebacker and his teammates bolted to the end zone and found a field level “Monday Night Football” camera to the left of the goal post at Gillette Stadium. They stopped in front of it and posed.
In the front of the group, Smith proceeded to rip off imaginary dollar bills off of a pretend wad.
As in, pay me.
“It was really last-minute,” Smith said. “It was like, ‘Oh!’ I knew we had the game wrapped up and just let it rain a little bit.”
There was a time when Tuesday’s looming NFL trade deadline would have been a big deal to Smith. In August, he famously conducted a “hold-in,” demanded a trade and ripped new boss Ryan Poles for, he said, not negotiating in good faith for a contract extension.
A funny thing happened on the way to a nasty divorce, though: on Aug. 20, Smith backed off of his trade demand after the Bears refused to move him. He began to practice and vowed to focus on the season. He’s been stating his case for a monster contract ever since.
Smith has been the Bears’ best defensive player by almost any metric. He leads the league with 78 tackles — and the Bears with 2 ½ sacks. The only Bears defender to play all 448 snaps this season, Smith is one of two linebackers in the sport with two or more interceptions this season.
“I feel like I’m in the same head space that I was back when I asked [for a trade] — and that was declined,” Smith said this week. “I shift my focus to just being the best guy I can to the guys in the locker room. The best guy to myself and to the loyal fans.
“And I just want to go out each and every week and show that I’m the best in the game. That’s just been my thing.”
Smith has been so good that the Bears would be fools to trade him before Tuesday — and, barring a shocking development, they don’t figure to. At the least, the Bears can give Smith the franchise tag in 2023 and again in 2024, locking him in for two more years of his prime. Smith, though, would prefer a long-term deal.
Smith said he hadn’t noticed extra scrutiny after his “hold-in,” but admitted he hadn’t been on social media since the summer. He had a message for anyone that might doubt him.
“Hey, they can keep talking,” he said. “I’ll just keep letting the account keep rolling over and my play keep stacking up. That’s how I feel about it.”
Safety Eddie Jackson has noticed his focus.
“He wanted to get paid, but he didn’t let that affect him,” Jackson said. “He still comes out to perform, be vocal and be a good leader.”
And a good pass-rusher. He leads a defense built on four linemen getting to the quarterback with 2 ½ sacks. He averaged 3 ½ per year entering this season.
“Thick body, has some power, looks like he has some wiggle at the top of his rush,” defensive coordinator Alan Williams said. “So far, he’s been able to finish … The production that we’re getting from him has been good.”
Linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi calls Smith, who was named a team captain at the start of the season, “the epitome of a good teammate.” Even during his “hold-in,” in which Smith skipped training camp practices but participated in meetings, Borgonzi considered him a second coach.
“When guys came off the field, he was the first one … it was me and him talking through the plays and making the corrections,” he said.
He still is — both with his young teammates and with himself. On Thursday, Borgonzi said, he talked to Smith about how he can improve.
“The great players always want to get better; they’re never satisfied,” he said. “He works really hard and wants to be even better. … We tell him every day, ‘You got stuff you need to work on. Because you never stay the same.’”
