It is looking like the Chicago Bears whiffed on signing Robert Quinn last offseason. 2020 was a weird year for everyone, and we can squeeze our eyes and give Quinn an excuse. In his first year with the Chicago Bears, he has no offseason with them, he hurts his foot, he gets off on the wrong foot, and all of a sudden he has a lost year.
However, there is just as much room for pessimism when it comes to the signing as there is when you look at the positives. The biggest comes down to the coordinator and fit. Quinn was a signing for a Chuck Pagano defense.
Pagano rushed four men upfront and did not worry about dropping any of them into coverage. A player such as Leonard Floyd had a limited role in the Pagano defense because his value came, in addition, to pass rush, while Pagano wanted sole pass rush.
Flash forward a year and we see the Chicago Bears moving on from Pagano and going with Sean Desai. To be fair we do not know what Desai will do with his defense, but we know he learned more from Vic Fangio coming up the ranks than Pagano.
Fangio, of course, drafted Leonard Floyd and would not want a player such as Quinn due to the lack of versatility.
Robert Quinn is not trusted in coverage
This is a simple way to look at this but it speaks to the louder point. With Vic Fangio in 2018, the Bears dropped Leonard Floyd into coverage 19% of defensive snaps and Khalil Mack on 12%, per PFF. That number is high for Mack but speaks to what Fangio wanted out of his edge rushers.
This followed with him in Denver, as he dropped his edge rushes Into coverage 12%, and 11% of the time in 2019, and then 16% and 13% in 2020.
We know that Brandon Staley was a Fangio follower as well, and his rise may have helped Desai get his name thrown into discussions. Last year he dropped Floyd into coverage 17% of the time.
Again, it is not just the act of dropping them into coverage as much as having a fluid mover who can be versatile and give the defense advantages in terms of pre-snap looks.
Leonard Floyd has more value pre-snap because of all of the possible things he could do compared to Quinn, where you know he is coming. This does not make one better than the other, but this is an advantage a player like Floyd has.
Last year Robert Quinn dropped into coverage 7.2% of the snaps. That is obviously lower than even Mack had in a Fangio defense, but that number is far and away his career-high.
In 2019, he dropped into coverage 0.5% of his snaps, and in 2018 it was 2.4%. With the Rams in his last year in 2017, it was 4.7%.
Beyond that he has not done it often we watched his tape last year and he was awful when he dropped into coverage. Teams hoped for it so that they could throw at him.
Run Defense
Beyond that, Quinn is not even that trusted as a run defender. We knew that when they signed him, and it was a pure pass rush move. Still, last year was one of his worst as a run defender. The team was relying on Barkevious Mingo more than they had realized because of the run defense.
Sure, Sean Desai can be more scheme-oriented when he drops him, but the reality is that Desai will not drop him, because he will coach to the strengths of Quinn.
However, what this means is that Quinn is likely viewed as a rotational pass rusher in this defense. On downs when the defense can pin their ears back and attack, they will call on him. However, on early downs and downs when Desai wants to mix up looks and blitz, you are going to see Jeremiah Attachou, a player who brings more down-to-down versatility.
It would be disappointing, but Attachou could play as much or more than Quinn, and that could actually help Quinn produce more as he is exclusively used on pass downs. It is just a much lesser role than expected last year.