A year after he was traded to the Baltimore Ravens, Roquan Smith expressed gratitude to the Chicago Bears for trading him.

The linebacker ultimately signed a five-year, $100 million extension with the Ravens.

Baltimore sits at 7-2 and is vying for the top seed in the AFC, while the Bears are 2-7 amid another troubling season.

"Man, it's pretty crazy thinking back to when I was initially traded," Smith said. "It was bittersweet for me, just knowing Chicago and rightfully so. But if I would've stayed there, honestly, [I] wouldn't have been able to compete for a title anytime soon. And then when I came over here, it took me a while, like a couple of weeks, to really realize how stacked this team was, as well as how many good people there are on this team, and how they just bring in truly good people.

"And when I just think about it from the perspective of having the opportunity to compete for one year in and year out with the talent we have. Man, it makes me so happy, just knowing my career is not going down the drain, in the sense of playing somewhere where I'm not truly competing for a title."

The Chicago Bears and Montez Sweat have agreed to a long-term extension before the edge rusher's debut against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Sweat, 27, is signing a four-year extension worth $98 million, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter. Sweat's new deal includes $72 million in guarantees (roughly $62 million guaranteed at signing), is front-loaded and he will earn about $56 million by the end of 2025, a source told ESPN's Dan Graziano

The Chicago Bears are "confident" they can sign Montez Sweat to a long-term deal after acquiring the defensive end in a trade with the Washington Commanders earlier this week.

Sweat, 27, is playing on the final year of his rookie deal.

"I feel really confident that we can get a deal done," general manager Ryan Poles said.

Since being drafted in the first round in 2019, Sweat is one of six players to notch at least five sacks in each of the last five seasons.

"I think it's capitalizing right now because you start to lose opportunities," Poles said about trading for Sweat. "If you look at the free agent stack now, it's going to look very different by the time you get to that point of the year because there are so many different opportunities that can pop up in terms of extensions, tags, different things like that. So, we decided with that type of player we wanted to capitalize on that now."