Robert Quinn's Sack Drought Slowing Down the Defense
There is no hedging from Bears outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino regarding Robert Quinn and his production—or lack thereof.
Quinn has taken 308 snaps on defense. He made a sack on his very first one, a strip-sack against the New York Giants in Week 2.
He's 0-for-307 after that.
"He has to make a play," Monachino said. "There's no 28-point plays in football. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. He needs to start taking bites."
The elephant in the room is the one sack and three quarterback hits Quinn has in the first 10 games, nine of which he played. He has nine total tackles and two forced fumbles, but the sacks and the strip-sacks are why the Bears brought Quinn to Chicago at $33 million guaranteed and $70 million over five years.
"You'd like to think, and I know Robert would like to think, that any time he's singled is an opportunity," Monachino said. "He's had plenty and hasn't been able to finish on some of the snaps that he could have.
"I will tell you this: The opponents that we play understand that we have two guys who are elite. They do everything they can to protect their quarterback. We, as a staff, got to figure out ways to beat those protections. As a player, and as a position coach, we've got to figure out ways to beat that individual protector."
The Bears gave up on Leonard Floyd at the right defensive side and Floyd was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week last week for the Rams. He has reached his career high of seven sacks for a season. Ryan Pace chose not to pay Floyd the $13 million he was due in 2020 and cut him.
The lack of production is perplexing because Quinn has been effective most when teamed with good outside rushers in the past. He had 11 1/2 last year with Dallas.
Now he's with Khalil Mack, who is enjoying a strong season with 6 1/2 sacks, an interception and 20 pressures. His QB pressures a bit off from the past two years but his sack total is better than after 10 games last year.
So if Mack is getting home at times and is causing problems, it stands to reason Quinn should be as well.
The Bears haven't used him nearly as much as Mack because he is more of a situational player. He's not playing in pass coverage as Floyd did. So he was only on the field for more than half the defensive snaps once in his first first six games. However, he's been over 50% in each of the last three and against Tennessee played 75% of the snaps.
"Now we're trying to get him up so he's somewhat north of 50% of our snaps," Monachino said. "He's taking more snaps in different situations, which is helping us reach that number."
As a team, the Bears are not getting enough takeaways and some of this can be traced to the lack of overall pressure on quarterbacks. While Mack gets sacks, it's not as if the defense is terrorizing quarterbacks.
The Bears rank 25th in overall pressures according to Sportradar, at 19.8%. That's not necessarily a killer, because several good defenses are similar. Green Bay has only 18.5%. The Buffalo Bills defense is only one spot better than the Bears at 24th.
However, the Bears do not blitz as much as most teams. They're trying to get there with a four-man rush and play coverage as much as possible. They're No. 1 on third downs and No. 1 in the red zone so apparently they're doing a good job of this, but doing this combined with more pressure on the quarterback could produce the needed turnovers.
Quinn hasn't spoken to media since Nov. 2 about his role in the defense, but when he did he was owning his struggles getting home.
“I know one of my mottos is that you have to look yourself in the mirror first and be completely honest with yourself before you go and try to have a conversation with someone else," Quinn said. "I always start by looking at myself in the mirror and realize how good I might have played or how terrible I played or wherever in between, I always start with myself."
The trend won't start with a rush of plays from Quinn, Monachino reasoned. It starts with one big play, then another.
"He has to make one play in the passing game," Monachino said. "Before he can make three or four, he's got to make one."
The first one ends the streak.
"It's been a long drought," Monachino said. "Nobody's feeling that any more than Robert. I think that today's meeting was valuable for all of them, especially him. Because he sees that he's close and a couple little things from a technique standpoint and a couple things early and late in a down can help him have productive rushes.
"I think he knows that this is not a difficult game and sometimes we try to make it too difficult. He's got to focus in on little tiny details that help him finish those rushes. I think with a player like Robert, we got to evaluate him based on the numbers. And right now, his numbers aren't where he wants them, I want them or any of us in the city wants them."
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