POLL: Are you upset we traded Roquan away?

[BaBaBlacksheep]

Great player so hate to see him go.

But happy as shit Poles got something for him instead of letting him walk.

 

[jsu34]

Mixed. Poles was basic mixed. Poles wanted to keep him but saw the writing on the wall and decided to get something in return for him.

I'm happy for Roquan but also pissed because he's a raven and I have the steelers as my other team. Steelers aren't going anywhere this year so that does soften the blow some.

 

[mecha]

I remember when he was drafted and people were calling him Noquan for holding out. that said, I liked him part of the Bears defensive machine. it's not like he's Brian Urlacher or Mike Singletary though. Poles did good business on this one, +1 to him.

Bears have traded better players for cases of Gatorade.

 

[napo55]

The Bears are cap rich and could have found a way to pay him. The question now is how all that cap will be used and whether the money that might have gone to Roquan is put to a use that improves the team over what it would have been with RS.

 

[Spitta Andretti]

I'm not happy with the process of how it ended. Poles is trying to make it sound as if they couldn't find common ground with Roquan and therefore needed to move on. Yet at the same time, Poles admitted that he gave his final offer right before the season started and had not re entered negotions with Roquan.

Sounds to me there was a half-assed effort to see if they could get him at a really good price and if not they were more interested in moving off of him. There wasnt much of a push to keep him or to even have a conversation with him before trading him. Decision was already made. Poles didnt really look to find common ground.

We could have easily kept Roquan on the team under the franchise tag and had another 1.5 offseasons at minimum to come to an agreement, do a proper and thorough evaluation, and then have a better idea of what his value is in Eberflus' defense. Instead, final offer was made months ago, silence through the season, and BAM! traded.

At the end of the day, Roquan asked for this. He wanted to be traded

 

[baselman1974]

I’m mixed. Smith was a very good LB, but a team has to pay for future production. Is he a HOFer? No. Is he the best ILB in NFL? No. Leonard and Warner are better. He can’t ask for a ground breaking contract unless he is the best.

Plus having no agent and holding out before does make it easier for the trade to be palatable. Also illegally asking other teams for a trade made Smith look stupid and stubborn. I understand that Smith should lookout for himself but his demands were not reasonable and no middle ground.

He will see that a good off the ball LB will not get 20 million a year.

 

[Sparks500]

I think there’s more to it than the contract. I think he’s just a weird guy and they didnt want him as a team leader….

 

[Myk]

It's Poles problem to find common ground because he is incentivised to keep good players on the Bears roster. Otherwise, he has to go out and find a replacement and be graded on that.

The thing is, we didn't have to find common ground right now. Roquan has stated publicly he would happily play under the franchise tag. We had time to see if the conversation shifted and if both sides could find an agreement. To end it prematurely tells me Poles wasn't really that interested in keeping him.

If it was just a matter of "deescalators" than you would think they were close in negotiations. But from the sounds of it, it was likely more to it since Poles claims he didn't forsee reaching common ground, hence being far apart.

If we tagged him most likely we get nothing for him. He's absolutely not worth QB pay so there would never be common ground to find. Maybe he's worth that to another team that is already built but for us he's just an anchor around our necks keeping us from being able to build with a contract like that. Just like Mack and Mack was actually worth it.

If it was just a matter of $4,000,000 between $18,000,000 and $22,000,000 you would think it would be easy on Smith's side. Either way one year's paycheck has him very well set for life. $18M is $30,000 a month for 50 years and he was going to get at least 4 years of that so $120K per month for the rest of his life without any interest.
Even his rookie contract has him set for life.
If he was offered his desired "highest paid LB" and refused because of de-escalators that tells me the guy who holds out of training camp at any chance he gets was planning on sandbagging once he got his pay day. His refusal would've had it shut down for me.

But that's me, since Benson I don't like holdouts. For Poles and what Flus has said I'm guessing someone had a talk with him and it was decided Smith's job wasn't worth $20M/yr to the team. You're probably sort of right and there was no attempt to talk further, it was decided his trade value was worth more than is play value.

The Bears are cap rich and could have found a way to pay him. The question now is how all that cap will be used and whether the money that might have gone to Roquan is put to a use that improves the team over what it would have been with RS.

Oh noes! How will we find super stars to outbid for?
Hmm, top FA WR and some top FA oline vs Smith tackling for gains letting teams march down the field 2/3s of the time.

There is no finding ways to pay him. There is his value compared to others' value.
Didn't you learn from Cutler? You don't pay players just to spend money. That locks you into having that player. They have to be worth what you are paying.

 

[Nelly]

Not really an "indifferent" option, so i picked "No" even though I don't think it was as simple as saying he's all about the money. Wish him the best, he's got a right to try to angle for as much money as he wants, it's just not going to be from the Bears, so I'm glad with got some good value back for him.

 

[sevvy]

The Bears are cap rich and could have found a way to pay him. The question now is how all that cap will be used and whether the money that might have gone to Roquan is put to a use that improves the team over what it would have been with RS.

I don't think paying a LB 20 mil is in Poles' vision for this team. I think he values certain positions over others based on the impact they generally make. So Edge/3-tech/CB > LB.

It sucks to lose big talent on a team that desperately needs it, but he's sticking to his vision for this team. In the long run, I think we'll recognize that this was the correct move to make.

 

[Bort]

I think they probably should have let him play out the season, then transition tagged him or non-exclusive franchise tagged him and let him go negotiate with other teams to find out for himself that no one wants to pay him $20+ million a year. He still would have the same trade value barring injury.

 

[IBleedBearsBlood]

Not at all. Thanks for the hard play and good luck with your next team. Let’s go Bears!

 

[Raskolnikov]

I don't think paying a LB 20 mil is in Poles' vision for this team. I think he values certain positions over others based on the impact they generally make. So Edge/3-tech/CB > LB.

It sucks to lose big talent on a team that desperately needs it, but he's sticking to his vision for this team. In the long run, I think we'll recognize that this was the correct move to make.

I don’t like the trade based on position value principle.

Keep good players around that want to be here.

But the principle of measuring every situation uniquely. I don’t think Smith was ever going to be contract reasonable. Not worth sweating over given the other concerns.