3 reasons Chicago Bears need to extend Roquan Smith

1. Roquan Smith deserves it, Bears can afford it

You can argue that if Roquan Smith was the highest-paid linebacker In the NFL it would be a tad high. He is a clear perennial Pro Bowl player, but is just on the outside of the All-Pro discussion, even if he arguably should be right there.

Still, by almost all metrics, tape reviews, and understanding of the position it is easy to say that Smith is in the top five to ten linebackers in the NFL. The reality of what happens in the NFL is that a top-five player will often set a market.

That is because the salary cap goes up every year. So, the next year the cap will go up, a new salary will come in, and the player paid a year ago will slip down the totem pole. By the time the deal is up, the contract never looks as bad because multiple new players beat the salary, and the cap rose substantially.

In 2022, the NFL is still paying off the floor they established in 2020 due to COVID. What that means is that there is still a chance to see a big boom in the next two to three years, as they no longer have the back fees. With that in mind, a contract today will not be bad tomorrow.

As a top ten linebacker, it is pretty easy to decide to keep him. The Chicago Bears have heaps of cap space, and the free agent market is already drying up. The best thing to do with the space would be to extend your own, show goodwill, and then when the cap continues to grow, you can pay your draft picks, and also have the money to go all-in when the time calls for it.

Extending Roquan Smith will not hurt the Bears in the long term, and a couple million here and there will go further in goodwill than it will hurt the team from signing a free agent. They should extend Roquan Smith.