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From a Biggs article:
I called an executive with another team. He has nothing to do with the Smith situation, but I wanted to pick his brain about the Bears’ dilemma.
“He’s a good stack linebacker,” he told me. “He’s not a top-five linebacker for me. Not right now anyway. If I was the GM or coach, I would say: ‘We want you on this football team. We think you have a bright future on this team. But we have to see you play in this defense first before we start talking about a contract. If you go out there and make plays and you become Shaquille Leonard, we’re going to pay you. This is a new team. New system. New way of doing things. We can’t give you money based on where someone else drafted you and for what you did on tape in another system.’
“My top five stack linebackers? Shaq Leonard, Fred Warner, Demario Davis, Micah Parsons and I still love Lavonte David. I thought De’Vondre Campbell was better than Roquan last year. He made more plays. Better player? I don’t know. Roquan has better traits (than Campbell), and that’s what you get into. In terms of the traits perspective, Roquan is the guy everyone in the NFL is looking for off the ball. He is a three-down player. He has coverage traits. You can scheme him as a blitzer and he’s got ridiculous pursuit speed. He’s got every trait you want. The thing you wonder about … is he a game changer? He might be in this scheme. He hasn’t played in it yet.”
I called an executive with another team. He has nothing to do with the Smith situation, but I wanted to pick his brain about the Bears’ dilemma.
“He’s a good stack linebacker,” he told me. “He’s not a top-five linebacker for me. Not right now anyway. If I was the GM or coach, I would say: ‘We want you on this football team. We think you have a bright future on this team. But we have to see you play in this defense first before we start talking about a contract. If you go out there and make plays and you become Shaquille Leonard, we’re going to pay you. This is a new team. New system. New way of doing things. We can’t give you money based on where someone else drafted you and for what you did on tape in another system.’
“My top five stack linebackers? Shaq Leonard, Fred Warner, Demario Davis, Micah Parsons and I still love Lavonte David. I thought De’Vondre Campbell was better than Roquan last year. He made more plays. Better player? I don’t know. Roquan has better traits (than Campbell), and that’s what you get into. In terms of the traits perspective, Roquan is the guy everyone in the NFL is looking for off the ball. He is a three-down player. He has coverage traits. You can scheme him as a blitzer and he’s got ridiculous pursuit speed. He’s got every trait you want. The thing you wonder about … is he a game changer? He might be in this scheme. He hasn’t played in it yet.”
