Robert Quinn questionable usage burns Chicago Bears against Packers

The Chicago Bears usage of Robert Quinn got even more questionable after Sunday night

The Chicago Bears usage of Robert Quinn had made sense for most of the year. In the offseason, we questioned what they would do about his struggles in the run game and in coverage, and the answer appeared to be that they signed Barkevious Mingo and drafted Trevis Gipson to have a platoon for Quinn.

Quinn missed the first week due to injury, but heading into the bye week had only gone over half of the defensive snaps in four of his ten games.

After the bye week, Robert Quinn played more, which makes sense considering what they are paying him. He saw 47 snaps, which was a season, and 66% of the snaps which was the second-highest rate of snaps played. However, his usage was questionable, to say the least.

Quinn played 25 snaps against the run, four snaps in coverage, and rushed the passer on 18 snaps. That is a season-high in snaps against the run, a season-high in times he dropped into coverage, but a season-low in pass-rush snaps.

While it is unfair to blame for the results of his snaps in coverage, it is worth noting that three of the four touchdowns in which Aaron Rodgers threw saw Robert Quinn playing off of the football in coverage.

In the play below is the first touchdown to Davante Adams. Fans are mad that Danny Trevathan got caught on Adams, but how about the fact that Robert Quinn took him at the beginning of his route. By the time Aaron Rodgers extends the play you can see that Quinn does not know what he is doing.

On the Robert Tonyan touchdown, Quinn redirects him before dropping into space. Quinn does shut off the underneath route to Adams, and the coverage bust is either Kyle Fuller or Eddie Jackson here. Still, these are two plays where Quinn is out of his element doing things he is not paid to do, and it is showing as the defense looks lost as a whole.

Lastly, this is hard to tell if Quinn was asked to defend Mercedes Lewis or take him on as a pass rusher. Still, Lewis tosses him to the side, and after Jaylon Johnson is sucked up, Johnson and Quinn are left following Lewis to the end zone.

It cannot be a coincidence that Quinn was dropping into coverage during three huge breakdowns. It could also be argued that a veteran such as Aaron Rodgers spotted Quinn and attacked him.

The Bears have done a good job at guessing when to play Quinn and keeping him on the field for obvious pass downs, and off of the field for rundowns.

Quinn seeing so much time against the run and not as much against the pass could be by design in that Aaron Rodgers would check to runs when Quinn was on the field, but would pass the ball when Barkevious Mingo was on the field. This was the first time since week two that Mingo had as many pass-rush snaps as he did against the run. It was more likely dictated by Rogers than by Pagano.

This is concerning in itself. It is now known for teams to run at Robert Quinn. Also, it is Pagano who ran plays with Quinn in coverage. These plays cannot be practiced much, and they resulted in breakdowns.

It is fair to say that while the Bears got a more well-rounded game in terms of usage and role, he also had a game that brought more questions into what his longterm value is to this roster moving forward.