NFL Draft results 2018: Bears draft Georgia LB Roquan Smith

ARLINGTON, Texas — Roquan Smith waited his whole life for the moment.

And then he turned his head Thursday, and missed it.

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The Georgia linebacker had turned around to talk to his agent in the green room of AT&T Stadium. His phone, which was sitting on the table, rang.

“I missed the call,” he said. “I tried to answer and I missed it. And then I tried to call back and I couldn’t get to them.”

A few seconds later, mercifully, his phone rang again.

A Bears representative told him to hold for general manager Ryan Pace.

“That was probably, it felt like, 15 seconds,” Pace said. “Just a little bit of a pause. But we weren’t concerned.”

Pace said the Bears were united about Smith — both he, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and coach Matt Nagy had him ranked among their top players — and that made the selection easy.

The No. 8 pick has a lot to live up to. Smith is the highest linebacker to be drafted by the Bears since Waymond Bryant was selected fourth in 1974. Since then, Otis Wilson went 19^th and Mike Singletary 38th. Brian Urlacher, who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was picked ninth in 2000.

Smith can rattle off all those names — plus Dick Butkus, Bill George, Lance Briggs and others.

“There’s a tremendous history,” he said. “I can’t put it into words, what it means to be a Chicago Bear.”

READ MORE: 2018 NFL Draft pick-by-pick results

Smith’s sideline-to-sideline tackling ability makes him a fit for a position group that, despite the Bears’ glaring holes at outside linebacker and offensive line, still needed an upgrade. He figures to start alongside veteran Danny Trevathan, who has started only 20 games the last two years because of injuries, and ahead of Nick Kwiatkoski.

“The first thing that comes to mind is his instincts, his play speed and his physicality,” Pace said. “I mean, he hits with impact.”

Smith is ready for Chicago: He talked to former Georgia teammate Leonard Floyd, the Bears’ first-round pick two years ago, and to former Bears defensive coordinator Mel Tucker about Halas Hall.

“I looked up to him a lot, gave me a lot of advice,” Smith said of Tucker, the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator. “He had experience on both sides. Just hearing from a guy like him, who’d done it for many years, was great.”

Smith represents the team’s first major defensive addition of the offseason. The Bears, who re-signed cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Prince Amukamara, added one relevant new face: inconsistent edge rusher Aaron Lynch, who totaled only 2½ sacks in the last two years for the 49ers.

The Bears missed out on two top defenders when the Browns, surprisingly, took Ohio State cornerback Denzel Ward fourth and the Broncos followed by drafting N.C. State edge rusher Bradley Chubb.

Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson, the Bears’ only realistic offensive target, was drafted No. 6 overall by the Colts. When the Bills traded up to No. 7 to draft quarterback Josh Allen, the Bears were left with their pick of two inside linebackers — Smith and Virginia Tech’s Tremaine Edmunds — as well as safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and Derwin James.

Then Smith’s phone rang — twice — and he got his chance to try to be the Bears’ next great linebacker.

“For me as a young guy to come in and come behind those guys, who have set the standard so high,” he said, “I’m just trying to work and be remembered like those guys.”

Asked how he compared his skill set to Bears’ greats, Smith — wisely — demurred.

He’ll have time to make his own name for himself.

“They were all great players and unique in their own way,” he said. “I feel like I’m unique in my own way.”