Philadelphia Eagles scouting reports: Bears ILB Roquan Smith

Don’t expect any cakewalks for the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense in Week 8. Khalil Mack is phenomenal, but Roquan Smith isn’t too shabby either.

Much has been made about the Chicago Bears‘ lack of offense. If you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan, your hope is you can hang your hat on that being one of Philly’s advantages for Week 9’s game on Sunday. Here’s the thing though. Forget last Sunday in Orchard Park. If you think about it, ‘The Birds’ haven’t exactly been a new school version of ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’ either.

To make matters worse, they get to line up against arguably the most talented defense they’ve faced to this point of the season on Sunday, and that’s saying a lot considering they’ve already had games versus the Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers, and, yes, that team down in Texas.

The Bears will be bringing Khalil Mack with them, the best player in the game today at his position, but if you think he’s the extent of Chicago’s defensive weapons, think again. They’ve got three other linebackers who are Pro Bowl ready. Let’s look at one of them, Roquan Smith.

Smith’s been decent, not great, in 2019. The numbers suggest it’s been business as usual, but when you have his talent, you’re held to a higher standard, one many think he hasn’t lived up to. He had a bounce-back game in Week 8 versus the Los Angeles Chargers, and his seven total tackles (three were solo), made him Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded defensive player on the Bears team.

Take a look.

On another note, here’s where Philly may have an advantage. If they can manipulate some formations to get Zach Ertz or Dallas Goedert matched up against Roquan Smith, they may be able to make a few things happen. On passing plays, receivers that Smith has covered have been targeted 27 times, and they’ve made 17 tackles, good for 63 percent and 190 yards. We’ll see if Mike Groh and Doug Pederson are thinking the same thing on Sunday.