Bears made the right decision picking Tremaine Edmunds over Roquan Smith
The two-time Pro Bowler is a much better fit for the Bears defense than the former first-rounder would’ve been.
The Chicago Bears made headlines last year when they traded away middle linebacker Roquan Smith, who was considered the team's best player, at the time.
Just a little than four months later, they've reloaded at the position by signing former Buffalo Bills Pro Bowler Tremaine Edmunds to a four-year, $72 million deal.
The Bears and Smith couldn't come to terms on a contract extension, so the Bears traded him. Because of that, a lot of people are wondering why the Bears -who were in good cap shape at the time- chose to forgo paying Smith.
When you break it down, it's pretty easy to see why things went the way they did.
For starters, Smith wanted to get paid for his production pre-Ryan Poles/Matt Eberflus, which is certainly fair. But, Poles and co. didn't think that had the same impact when it came to the final cost like Smith did.
And, there's zero guarantee Smith would perform like a top-paid player in Eberflus'/Alan William's defense. Remember, Smith was a weakside linebacker in Vic Fangio's system, which is a far different system than the one Eberflus employs.
Edmunds, on the other hand, has played and produced in Leslie Frazier's system, which is far more similar to what Eberflus runs.
He is also cheaper (Smith's deal averages $20 mil per year whereas Edmunds' is $18 mil per year) and two years younger than Smith.
"My immediate reaction was like, 'Well, if you were gonna pay Tremaine that, why would you have not just kept Roquan [Smith]?'" ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said on Monday's episode of NFL Live. "The difference is Tremaine Edmunds grew up under Leslie Frazier playing defense in Carolina, which is this traditional, at least, Cover 3/Cover 2 scheme. [A] Tampa 2-MIKE linebacker run-through. That's exactly what Alan Williams, who's the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, wants to do.
"So, it's probably a little bit more of, 'We view Roquan and Tremaine as similar talent and/or players, but Tremaine has a great history of running the middle linebacker position in this scheme.' that Chicago wants to run."
Football can be complicated and there are tough decisions to make. But when looking at the Bears' decision from a bird's eye view, it's easy to see why they made the choice they did.
