Roquan Smith returns to practice, plans to play out contract with Bears

Roquan Smith's hold-in with the Chicago Bears came to an end on Saturday as he returned to full team drills for the first time this preseason.

Along with his return to practice, the star linebacker also told the Chicago media that he is betting on himself and plans to play out the final year of his contract with the team. 

Smith missed the first 15 practices during training camp as the two sides worked to negotiate a new contract extension. 

Little progress has been made as the negotiations have been intense and increasingly bitter. That only seemed to get worse as Smith continued to miss team practices and requested a trade to a team that would give him the deal he was seeking.

As of now, there is no new contract extension in place with the Bears and there does not seem to be one on the horizon.

Smith said on Saturday that negotiations are "over" for now and he does not anticipate more during the season.

He added that contract talks with the team were "distasteful" (via the Athletic's Adam Jahns).

Smith is scheduled to make $9.7M this season in the final year of his rookie contract and will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. 

The Bears drafted Smith No. 8 overall in the 2018 draft and watched him blossom into one of the league's best linebackers. He has been second-team All-Pro in each of the past two seasons and been the face of not only the Bears' defense, but also the team itself. 

Even though he has not taken part in team drills until Saturday, Smith has been active in individual drills. 

Head coach Matt Eberflus said on Saturday that Smith has been a pro and fully engaged in team meetings despite the intense contract situation and lack of participation in team sessions at training camp. 

In the short-term this is great news for the Bears' defense. Expectations surrounding the team are already low this season, and having to trade Smith would have been a pretty substantial blow. They not only get him back in the lineup for the season, but also another year to try and still get him signed to an extension. 

The bad news is Smith seems pretty fed up with the negotiation process and there still seems to be a pretty big gap between the two sides. There is also always the possibility that the Bears could utilize the franchise tag after this season, which would probably not bridge the gap in negotiations.