Restoration Project: Finding Robert Quinn's Rush

The Bears defensive coaching staff has theories about Robert Quinn's pass rush slump last year and believes his situation can be fixed.

All you can do when a $70 million investment goes down the drain is give it a little more time, and find a way to offset losses.

The Bears have done this at outside linebacker this year with their 2020 cash disaster, Robert Quinn.

Easily the biggest Bears mystery of 2020 for any number of reasons, the 11th-year pro looks to rebound from his worst season in the NFL. Just in case he's still slow off the mark, they brought in Jeremiah Attaochu as a backup edge who can provide sacks and rest for the starters.

The easy call is Quinn rebounds. The easy explanation for said rebound is that it's pretty difficult not to be better than he was last season.

What the Bears need isn't a mere rebound from Quinn. They need a colossal bounce back by the 6-foot-4, 257-pound edge rusher.

The Bears signed Quinn after his second-best season as a pass rusher. This was risky because he was already turning 30 before last season. And despite stats saying he had the league's best pass rush win rate, he only averaged six sacks a year over the previous four seasons.

Perhaps the two-sack season last year is closer to his norm now than the 11 1/2 sacks he had for Dallas in 2019.

There is no doubt Quinn once was a dominant force. In 2013 he made All-Pro and the Pro Bowl by making 19 sacks and forcing seven fumbles. Even Khalil Mack has never done that.

Quinn had a three-year spurt of 40 total sacks.

The explanations came in several forms. He suffered from a medical condition known as drop foot was one possibility, or he didn't adapt to playing 3-4 edge because he is more of a 4-3 end who rushes better with his hand in the dirt.

The medical situation isn't really something the team will talk about. The edge rush situation was addressed repeatedly last year by both bormer defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano and former outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino. Quinn did tell the media at his first press conference that he was a bit uncomfortable at the thought of being moved to the left side—the Bears often had shifted Mack from right to left edge, so the other edge had to do the same.

Already, it's been touched on by new defensive coordinator Sean Desai and new outside linebackers coach Bill Shuey. Desai sees it as getting the entire defensive front in sync with what is being asked and then putting players in positions where they can succeed.

"So that's inclusive of Robert, kind of get him comfortable in what he likes to do as long as it fits within the defense and then the same with all the other guys in that front," Desai said. "We want to generate more pressure, whether it's QB pressures and obviously that ultimately leads to sacks and all that stuff. We want to do that.

"But it’s not just him. You know what I mean? The whole philosophy of rushing is when you're doing a four-man rush is be four as one just like when you're in coverage. They all got to work together and if one person fails that, that impacts everybody else."

Shuey believes it's not a problem with Quinn fitting the scheme.

"Obviously, a guy that has over 80 sacks in the NFL, it's not like there is something broke there I don't think," Shuey said. "He's got the ability, he has the clear production. Then my job would be to make sure he's put in a position where he can make more plays and I think he's looking forward to doing that.

"I also think it's going to be balancing out the reps and the timeliness of getting him into games in the right situations where he can be at his best. There is some work to be done there and Rob knows that."

Robert Quinn at a glance

Career: 11th season, 82 1/2 sacks, 151 QB hits, 28 forced fumbles, 20 passes defended, 310 tackles.

2020:  20 tackles, 2 sacks, 6 quarterback hits, 3 forced fumbles.

The number: 16. Quinn had 16 pressures (a QB knockdown, a sack, chasing the QB out of the pocket or rushing him into a throw). In Dallas the previous season, Quinn had 35.

2021 projection: 6 sacks, 12 QB hits, 3 forced fumbles, 2 passes defensed. 

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