Roquan Smith set to return to Bears after missing game for ‘personal reason’
By Jake Rill
Published:
After missing Sunday’s game, Roquan Smith will be back on the field for the Chicago Bears this weekend.
The former Georgia linebacker missed time due to a “personal reason,” which led to the Bears deactivating him this past weekend for their game against the Minnesota Vikings.
When Smith met with the media on Wednesday, he confirmed that he would play this week against the Oakland Raiders, but he didn’t go into details about what caused him to miss last week’s contest.
“Like coach [Matt Nagy] said, it was a personal reason,” Smith told the media. “That’s behind us now. So just focused on getting better this week and moving on to Oakland.”
"I will play Sunday."
Roquan Smith addresses the media. pic.twitter.com/y17Jfs0xpF
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 2, 2019
Smith’s brief absence came after a report from ESPN’s Dan Graziano stated that the linebacker hadn’t been acting like himself around the Bears’ facilities for the previous week.
Through the first three games of the season, Smith had 24 tackles while helping the Bears get off to a 2-1 start. They improved to 3-1 with a win over the Vikings despite not having Smith on defense.
A first-round pick out of Georgia in 2018, Smith had a strong rookie season for Chicago last year, totaling 122 tackles, five sacks and an interception while playing all 16 games.
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
