The Chicago Bears remain tight-lipped on why linebacker Roquan Smith was a surprise inactive in Sunday's win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Smith was a late addition to the inactives list due to what the team called a "personal issue." Coach Matt Nagy stuck with that carefully constructed phrasing Monday.
"He's completely a personal issue," Nagy reiterated. "It's for us something that we're going to leave at that right now."
Smith was on the sideline during the Bears' 16-6 victory.
Nagy declined to say whether the "personal issue" had anything to do with an illegal incident.
"Personal issue," Nagy repeated. "I'm just going to say it was a personal issue. I'm not getting into anything else until... I'm just going to completely keep it at that."
The coach also wouldn't say whether the star linebacker would play this week against the Oakland Raiders or even whether he'd travel with the team to London.
"It's a personal issue," Nagy said again. "It's completely a personal issue. I'm not going to answer any more about it. That's where it's at right now. I understand where y'all are coming from. But I'm just out of respect for this right now, I just want to leave it at."
The more evasive the team is regarding the circumstances surrounding Smith being inactive, the more interested the public will become in what transpired to keep the former first-round pick on the sideline.
On the field, the Bears didn't miss a beat sans Smith, with Nick Kwiatkoski filling in well, compiling nine tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, a QB hit and a forced fumble.
"It was just something that yesterday, it was a decision that we ended up making," Nagy said of Smith being inactive. "We thought that was what we wanted to do at the time. Our guys handled it well. They handled it great. I thought [Kwiatkoski] did a great job at responding to it. He stepped up and had a helluva game."
