BEARS’ RING OF HONOR
Missed phone call aside, Georgia LB Smith wants to join greats
ARLINGTON, Texas — Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith waited his whole life for the moment.
And then he turned his head Thursday and missed it.
Smith had turned around to talk to his agent in the green room of AT& T Stadium. His phone, which was sitting on the table, rang.
“I missed the call,” Smith said. “I tried to answer, and I missed it. And then I tried to call back, and I couldn’t get to them.”
A few seconds later, mercifully, his phone rang again. A Bears representative told him to hold for general manager Ryan Pace.
“It felt like 15 seconds,” Pace said. “Just a little bit of a pause. But we weren’t concerned.”
Pace said the Bears were united about Smith — he, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and coach Matt Nagy had him ranked among their top players — and that made the selection easy.
The No. 8 pick has a lot to live up to. Smith is the highest linebacker to be drafted by the Bears since Waymond Bryant was selected fourth in 1974. Since then, Otis Wilson went 19th and Mike Singletary 38th. Brian Urlacher, who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was picked ninth in 2000.
Smith can rattle off all those names — plus Dick Butkus, Bill George, Lance Briggs and others.
“There’s a tremendous history,” he said. “I can’t put it into words, what it means to be a Chicago Bear.”
Smith’s sideline- to- sideline tackling ability makes him a fit for a position group that, despite the Bears’ glaring holes at outside linebacker and offensive line, still needed an upgrade. He figures to start alongside Danny Treva- than, who has started only 20 games the last two years because of injuries, and ahead of Nick Kwiatkoski.
“The first thing that comes to mind is his instincts, his play speed and his physicality,” Pace said. “I mean, he hits with impact.”
Smith is ready for Chicago: He talked to former Georgia teammate Leonard Floyd, the Bears’ first- round pick two years ago, and to former Bears defensive coordinator Mel Tucker about Halas Hall.
“I looked up to him, gave me a lot of advice,” Smith said of Tucker, the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator. “He had experience on both sides. Just hearing from a guy like him, who’d done it for many years, was great.” Smith represents the team’s first major defensive addition of the offseason. The Bears, who re- signed cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Prince Amukamara, added one relevant new face: inconsistent edge rusher Aaron Lynch, who totaled only 2 ½ sacks in the last two years for the 49ers.
The Bears missed out on two top defenders when the Browns, surprisingly, took Ohio State cornerback Denzel Ward fourth and the Broncos followed by drafting North Carolina State edge rusher Bradley Chubb.
Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson, the Bears’ only realistic offensive target, was drafted No. 6 by the Colts. When the Bills traded up to No. 7 to draft quarterback Josh Allen, the Bears were left with their pick of two inside linebackers — Smith and Virginia Tech’s Tremaine Edmunds — as well as safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and Derwin James.
Then Smith’s phone rang — twice — and he got his chance to try to be the Bears’ next great linebacker.
“To come in and come behind those guys who have set the standard so high . . . I’m just trying to work and be remembered like those guys,” Smith said.
Asked to compare his skills to those of Bears greats, Smith demurred. He’ll have time to make his own name for himself.
“They were all great players and unique in their own way,” he said. “I feel like I’m unique in my own way.”