Watching one former Chicago Bears 1st round pick intercept another is somewhat surreal. Yet that is the nature of things lately. Mitch Trubisky stepped in for the injured Kenny Pickett during a game against the Baltimore Ravens. He had the Pittsburgh Steelers driving for a potential go-ahead score. He was playing well too, having already led a touchdown drive earlier in the half. Then his old teammate Roquan Smith took advantage of their intimate familiarity with each other, picking off the quarterback in the red zone.
It is a moment Bears fans have seen so many times. Trubisky does a great job moving the ball down the field and then throws an inexplicable interception right before scoring. Those kinds of backbreaking moments became far too common towards the latter half of his time in Chicago. It seems horribly fitting that Smith continued piling onto that legacy. Yet another reminder of how bad the misevaluation was by Ryan Pace in 2017 when he took Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes.
Roquan Smith is certainly happy.
While intercepting his former quarterback is nice, it also adds to his overall stat sheet. The better he can make the numbers look, the higher his price tag will go when it’s time to secure that new contract. He’s been a welcome addition to Baltimore’s defense which has been one of the NFL’s best in 2022. They’ve had to be with how much their offense is struggling. It will be interesting to see what the Ravens do. Lamar Jackson needs a new contract too. Both players are working without agents. Could they let Smith walk in hopes of securing a compensatory pick? That would be quite a shift.
As for Trubisky, his future in the NFL seems set. Pittsburgh represented his last chance to secure a starting job. It didn’t work out. He is set for a career as a backup moving forward. That isn’t a terrible thing. Backups make good money in this league. Ask Chase Daniel. There will be a demand for somebody like Mitch among several teams. If he wants to play, he may have to leave for the upstart USFL or XFL. It’d be hilarious if Roquan Smith played a part in something like that happening.
Subscribe to the BFR podcast and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Where the hell was he throwing? That gets picked by the secondary if Ro doesn’t get it.
Ok, this is an interesting stat but nothing more.
Not sure why that warrants a write-up here. Slow day?