When the Chicago Bears traded linebacker Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens on Halloween in 2022, fans were upset. They weren’t exactly furious, but they were definitely upset.

Smith had been one of the Bears’ best all-around players for several seasons after being selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. He was a high-level performer on a defense that took some time to become “his,” but once it did, there was no doubt he qualified as a cornerstone for the franchise.

Rewind to nine months before the Bears traded Roquan Smith. Ryan Poles was named general manager in January and faced a tough decision on Smith’s future. The ascending linebacker was coming off an incredible season, one in which he ranked fifth in total tackles and ended the year as a second-team All-Pro. But his fit in Matt Eberflus’ (ugh) defense was undefined, and his contract was expiring. He wanted to get paid, and Poles wasn’t willing to meet his demands.

As a result, Poles pulled the trigger on a trade with the Ravens, sending Smith to Baltimore for linebacker AJ Klein and a second and fifth-round pick.

Fast forward two seasons since the trade. Eberflus, who no doubt was in favor of trading smith, is gone. Smith, meanwhile, has developed into one of the best defensive players in the NFL.

On Friday, Smith became a first team All-Pro defender.

Roquan Smith ended the 2024 season with 154 tackles, four tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. He’s also enjoying another playoff run with the Ravens, something that Bears players past and present rarely experience.

Ryan Poles’ decision to trade Roquan Smith is one he’d like to forget

For all the good things Poles has accomplished during his tenure as the Bears’ general manager (and yes, there are some good things), trading Smith isn’t one of them. And the mistake was compounded by his decision to acquire wide receiver Chase Claypool one day later.

Armed with the additional second-round pick the Ravens sent the Bears for Smith, Poles sent Chicago’s second-rounder (which ended up being the 32nd overall pick) to the Pittsburgh Steelers for Claypool in a trade that will be remembered as one of the worst in team history.

In the span of 24 hours, Poles traded away Smith and any real benefit they would’ve received from that trade for a player who’d appear in just ten games and catch a total of 18 passes.

Gross. Just, gross.

Hindsight will always be undefeated, but this outcome wasn’t hard to predict. Ryan Poles took a huge gamble when he traded Roquan Smith, and it’s backfired in the worst possible way.