Bear Necessities: Roquan Smith isn’t worried about personal accolades

This is our online morning newsletter, Bear Necessities. Subscribe to get the latest Bears news delivered to your mailbox every day.

Bears linebacker Roquan Smith is one of the NFL’s best linebackers, even if people don’t give him the recognition he deserves.

Smith tallied a career-high 139 tackles, including 98 solo tackles, six quarterback hits, four sacks, seven pass defenses, two interceptions, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. His 18 tackles-for-loss also led all inside linebackers and ranked second in the NFL to outside linebacker T.J. Watt.

And yet, Smith was snubbed from just about every list imaginable. Pro Bowl? Nope. Top 100 Players? Didn’t make it. All Pro? He was named to the second team.

But that doesn’t bother Smith.

‘‘Honestly, deep down, you think about it,’’ Smith told the Sun-Times. ‘‘Do you think I was a top-100 player this season? I’ll let you answer that. Most people that watch ball would know that, as well.

‘‘The Pro Bowl stuff, it’s a popularity thing. I’m not out there tweeting all this stuff: ‘Vote me, vote me.’ That’s not something I do. Hey, I play ball. I come out in each and every game and do what I need to do, and I let everything else handle itself. I’m not too worried about, ‘Vote me into this’ and ‘Vote me into that.’ The Bears organization knows who I am for this organization.’’

They absolutely know. Smith is a cornerstone of this Bears defense, and the franchise is gearing up to pay him accordingly when they dole out a hefty contract extension to keep him in Chicago for the foreseeable future.

But even as Smith continues to be disrespected in rankings or fan-voted lists, Smith isn’t one to voice thoughts of disrespect, whether it’s not being elected to the Pro Bowl or the Top 100 Players list. He’s content with letting his play speak for itself.

‘‘You can do all the yapping you want on social media,’’ Smith said, ‘‘but it all goes down between the lines. What you do between those is what really matters, as opposed to just speaking about things. And that’s what a lot of people do. But I won’t be one of those.’’

But just because Smith isn’t going to publicly voice that displeasure, don’t think he’s not using that for an extra bit of motivation.