Roquan Smith Publicly Bashes Bears Before Family Fest Day at Training Camp

Roquan Smith is very unhappy with the Chicago Bears. The former No. 8 overall pick in the NFL Draft released a Notes statement to insiders today in which he described how poorly contract negotiations have gone with the new front office management and requested a trade.

This is not a particularly big surprise if one has been paying attention. New GM Ryan Poles didn't draft Smith and has preached all offseason about building the team from the ground-up starting in the trenches, so it isn't really news that he's not leaping to give a linebacker huge money. Smith is a good player with two second-team All-Pro nominations in his first four years but he isn't quite the sideline-to-sideline superstar the Bears were envisoning when they spent a top-10 pick on him. All of this was predictable.

It is, however, a bit funny that Smith chose today of all days to release a manifesto explaining how the team has wronged him because it's Family Fest at Bears training camp today. A day meant to celebrate the fans as family with the organization and bringing everyone together. An organization that has royally pissed off one of the few good players left over from the previous regime and a fan favorite, to the point that he went far beyond the call of duty when it comes to asking for a trade.

The likely end result of trading Smith is par for the course when a team brings in a new head coach and GM combination. The way things are going is more par for the course for the disaster that has been the Chicago Bears for the last decade or so.