Who will Chicago Bears start in place of Roquan Smith?
The Chicago Bears trading Roquan Smith may be surprising just in the fact that they use him as an every-down player. Robert Quinn played close to 70% of the snaps this season, so he was tough to replace, but they are losing a player who has not missed a snap yet this year in Roquan Smith.
Nicholas Morrow will obviously stick in his role because he only missed one snap due to injury so far this season. So, there is nothing to increase. Morrow played the MIKE role, which allowed Roquan Smith to be more of a free runner as a WILL.
The Chicago Bears do not use a SAM often, mainly because they rush four with their hands down, and play in nickel. Still, it is a different role, so the question becomes who will play the SAM, and who will step into the WILL role.
The top two candidates are now AJ Klein and Jack Sanborn. Initially, Joe Thomas and Matt Adams have been playing over Sanborn. Beyond that, Klein was not on the roster until Monday. Still, the Chicago Bears started Sanborn for the first time on Sunday, and they just traded for Klein, which may signify where they stand on Adams and Thomas.
One thing to think about is that Klein has usually been a SAM. Sanborn would probably be more suited for the WILL anyways, but because of Roquan Smith, he has not been able to play there. That would make sense as to why Sanborn did not start over Thomas, who they viewed as their SAM.
Still, they wanted to get Sanborn on an NFL field, so that his first defensive snaps were not coming in for Roquan Smith. So, they gave him 13 snaps on Sunday to ease him in.
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The Chicago Bears deciding to play Sanborn last week and then trading for Klein adds up to Sanborn taking the WILL spot, and then Klein giving them more depth at the SAM. Thomas could compete with Klein, and Adams would remain behind Morrow, but for now, we could see Sanborn play 100% of the snaps the rest of the season.