NFC Notes: Roquan Smith, Bears, Packers

Roquan Smith

Multiple league sources have told Matt Lombardo of Heavy.com that the Bears will likely need to settle for a second- and/or third-round in a potential trade for disgruntled LB Roquan Smith.

A GM who to Lombardo doesn’t think they’ll get close to the kind of draft capital they’re currently looking for in return for Smith.

“I’m not sure they’re going to get close to the pick they’re asking for,” an NFL general manager said. “And on top of that, they’d have to find a team willing to pay big-time money for a linebacker.”

Meanwhile, an agent tells Lombardo that Smith isn’t the kind of player who moves the needle for a club in terms of being a Super Bowl contender.

“He doesn’t help a team get any closer to winning a Super Bowl,” the agent said. “The other problem is, he doesn’t have an agent. So, no one can backchannel on his behalf, teams can’t talk to him directly, and everything that other teams hear or get told, gets filtered through the Bears in some fashion, which likely is motivated by them making it harder to trade for him.”

Bears

Bears K Cairo Santos said the team’s grass is in poor shape. Santos explained that it’s something he has to put out of his mind and focus on controlling what he can.

“Especially Week 1, our first game of the season — I’ve seen better,” Santos said, via Chicago Sun Times. “It’s just what we have to deal with. The less of a problem you make it in your mind, it helps you overcome it and just go.”

Santos said that he had to seek out areas with similarly poor conditions in order to replicate the conditions at Soldier Field.

“I was going to a turf field at a high school, which was perfect,” Santos recounted. “It was almost like, ‘OK. I’m getting too comfortable.’ So in my neighborhood, there’s a soccer field and the grass is a Bermuda grass. It’s real long. I was like, ‘OK. This is more like it.’ The ball flies different. It’s not super even all the time… It’s important to put yourself in that situation.”

Packers

Packers TE Robert Tonyan was breaking out in a big way before he tore his ACL in Week 8.  He is now ready to make his return and feels great when it comes to both his health and his team. 

“Mentally, I’m not scared to get out there, I’m not overly eager to come back, I’m just smiling internally, because I’m like, some people forgot,” Tonyan said, via PackersWire.com. “Last season, I grew so much, and I’m thankful that (the injury) happened. I truly am because if I go the full season being healthy, and I’m up for a big contract – am I even in Green Bay? You never know. A good quarterback and a great defense are things that I want on a Super Bowl team. You have one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks of all time, and we have a bunch of people coming back on defense and then some. And then we don’t have a number one receiver anymore, that’s what I want, that’s the pressure I want to put on myself because I want to be that guy.”  

“We have a great locker room, we have great chemistry,” Tonyan continued. “I think it’s just the consistency of staying ourselves for a longer period of time. We come out hot, we win those close games, but then we get to the end of the season, and it’s like ‘Man (expletive) this’…but we’re a 13-3 football team, that’s our identity. We’re a winning football program, so why do we get down on ourselves as time progresses or the weight of the season gets on us – that’s not us…I think the consistency of being ourselves and staying true to ourselves for a longer period of time. I think that is where we will take the next step.”