Roquan Smith is no longer the Rogue One. According to multiple reports, the Bears have finally agreed to contract terms with their first-round pick, which means the rookie inside linebacker should soon join his teammates for the remainder of the preseason after missing all of training camp.
The unexpected crisis in Chicago is over:
The plan all along was for Smith -- taken with the eighth-overall pick out of Georgia -- to start alongside fellow inside linebacker Danny Trevathan on the Bears' budding defense. But the process of integrating Smith into Vic Fangio's system has been delayed as Smith and the Bears haggled over the details in his rookie contract.
At the end of July, the Chicago Tribune's Rich Campbell reported that the issue was related to the NFL's new helmet rule.
Smith's representatives at CAA Football are asking the Bears to include in the contract a written assurance that the team would not go after any of Smith's guaranteed money if he were suspended under the new rule, the sources said.
In early August, the Chicago Tribune's David Haugh reported that the Bears agreed to those conditions and the issue now pertained to "discipline for behavior outside the realm of a football play."
His representatives at CAA Football have insisted the Bears go even further and include contract language protecting the player from discipline for behavior outside the realm of a football play. The Bears' reluctance to do so revolves around their fear of setting a precedent for future contracts and has nothing to do with concerns about Smith's character, the source said.
Since then, the Bears wrapped up training camp after two preseason games. Three preseason games still remain for the Bears, beginning Saturday night when they face the Broncos in Denver. Given Smith hasn't been present for training camp, it seems unlikely that the Bears would suddenly throw him into the fray after less than a week of practice.
Although, ESPN's Adam Schefter did report that Smith could report to the team later Monday and play Saturday.
But the Bears can afford to bring him along slowly to the point where he makes his debut against the Chiefs on Aug. 25. Their final preseason game will be played against the Bills on Aug. 30, but starters don't usually play in the final week of the preseason.
The good news is that Smith should be completely healthy, having missed two opportunities to get hurt during meaningless preseason games.
It's true that the Bears deserved scrutiny for their handling of the contract negotiations -- as our Will Brinson wrote -- but they deserve credit for ending the impasse before it turned into a situation like the Chargers experienced two years ago when they didn't sign Joey Bosa until the end of August. As a consequence, Bosa missed the beginning of his rookie season.
Barring an injury in practice or the preseason, Smith should be out there with the rest of his teammates when the Bears open up the season against the Packers in a little less than a month. And by then, when Smith is hunting down Aaron Rodgers, it seems unlikely anyone will remember or care about a contract standoff that ended in mid-August.