Roquan Smith was moving from Athens to Chicago, that we knew. What we didn’t know was that it was going to take this long.

The great Georgia linebacker, selected No. 8 overall by the Chicago Bears in the 2018 NFL Draft, has been bickering with the Bears through his agents for nearly a month now. He’s been a no-show at practice since July 16 but will finally get to work this week after settling on a 4-year, $18 million contract that’s full guaranteed and includes about $11.5 million in upfront signing bonuses.

Why the holdout? It was all over protecting his money in case the league suspends him a time or two under its new helmet-to-helmet contact rules. Is that something worth fighting for? Something worth missing a month of critical practices over?

Of course it is.

This is a new era in the NFL and Smith’s agents at Creative Artists Agency fought the good fight. They like to fight. Compromise was reached, according to profootballtalk.com, keeping the Bears away from Smith’s money for suspensions of one or two games. They only can go after his guaranteed money for a suspension of three games or more for a violent hit. That’s only happened once in NFL history, to Cincinnati’s Vontaze Burfict.

So why all the fuss? Smith only knows one way to play the game, and he proved that at Georgia. He will fly all over the field from his middle linebacker position, and he will hit people, oftentimes with his head up, but many times with his helmet leading the way, intentionally or not.

It’s a vicious game, and Smith plays it that way. The Bears drafted him because they felt he was a plug-and-play linebacker who could hit the ground running. They need him to run their defense from Day 1, a huge Sept. 9 opener against their rivals, the Green Bay Packers.

And now he’s missed a month. And missed a lot.

“You’re playing at that position, and there are a lot of calls that go on,” new Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy told reporters earlier this week. “Very similar to a quarterback, there’s a lot going on.”

Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Smith (No. 58, above) is smart. We know that from his Georgia days. He’ll get busy at work this week, and pick things up quickly. He’s not the first NFL holdout and he won’t be the last, but the Bears are expecting him to be the NFL Rookie of the Year this year, and that’s what they want. Bulldogs fans rooting for one of their all-time favorites, too.

There’s history here with the Bears and suspensions. Linebacker Danny Trevathan missed a game last year after a big hit. The Bears could have gone after some money, but didn’t. They defended him, but still, that was enough for Smith to play the role of prudent businessman.

“I have, I put it out there (to Smith),” Trevathan told Sports Illustrated Sunday after practice. “The Bears worked on my side in that sense, and I’m sure it can work out vice versa. With the new rules there are going to be a lot more flags out there, so point in case, he wants to get that out the way.

“Being new to the league, you just run into the ball and try to make a tackle, and you never know how it is going to end up, so you want to protect yourself and I think that’s what he’s doing. He wants to protect himself. You only get one chance to do this.”

That’s exactly right. There’s just this one contract that covers the next four years for sure, and probably a fifth since the Bears have a team option for the 2022 season.

Smith will go hit people, and he’ll hit them hard. Sometimes, heads will roll. That’s part of the game.

So now, let’s go play it.