By now, every Bears fan in the world has heard that Roquan Smith has requested a trade. Some would have you believe this is the death knell for the upcoming season, and that Ryan Poles should be fired for mismanaging this situation. In fact, he should be fired for all the terrible, unprecedented things that happened this offseason!
Grown men making poor choices away from the team? Injuries in practice? Not drafting or signing the guys that fans on Twitter wanted? Inexcusable!
I don't know if every other fanbase is like ours, but we seem to exaggerate any offseason news. A lot of Bears fans will tell you that this has been the worst offseason they've ever seen. But when you take an objective look at everything, you'll see that this has been a pretty normal offseason by most standards.
Injuries happen. General Managers draft or sign people that fans weren't expecting. Arrests happen (and at least they weren't sexually assaulting dozens of women or killing people in 180 mph car crashes). Hold-ins happen. Trade requests happen.
They don't just happen, in fact, they happen all the time. We just saw Deebo Samuels request a trade from the 49ers, and yet he signed a deal with them anyway. In recent Bears history, Lance Briggs swore he'd never play another down as a Bear when he was locked in a contract stand-off; he finished his career a lifelong Bear.
I said all this to say: R-E-L-A-X. Breathe. None of what has happened in this offseason is worth freaking out over. We can't control injuries, that goes without saying. Smith is still under contract with the Bears and can sign a new deal at any time. None of our players are in jail or serving lengthy suspensions for their 'crimes'. Nothing that we're dealing with as a team is out of the ordinary for NFL franchises, and it is certainly no reason to think Poles is a bad GM.
Besides all that, as I (and many of you) have been saying since the 2021 Draft: the most important thing right now to the Chicago Bears franchise is the development of quarterback Justin Fields into a superstar. And in case you haven't noticed, he's been performing very well in practice thus far. The offense has a ways to go, but Fields himself is already proving that he's made great strides since last season, in everything from decision-making and timing, to throwing mechanics and footwork.
Nothing matters until regular season games are played, but as of right now the future is looking very bright for our quarterback, especially considering the immense struggles the other sophomore quarterbacks are having in camp.
So stay excited for the season, and Bear Down!