The Chicago Bears had an offseason that fans understood, but most did not get excited about. Ryan Poles entered a new situation where he had a poor cap situation, and a lack of a first-round draft pick, so he did not have great pieces to maneuver.
Some were understanding of the situation while others took it as a chance to bash the new GM. Well, even with a quiet offseason compared to expectations, Ryan Poles saw huge returns from these four players.
4. Dominique Robinson
The person writing this was as high on Dominique Robinson coming into the draft as any reasonable draft writer was. Still, even I did not see this coming from the debut of the pass rusher from Miami (OH).
The reason in which I wrote about him pre-draft was about his ceiling, more than how he could impact games in week one. Robinson is long, fast, and twitchy, but was a wide receiver as recently as the pandemic year.
That is what caused him to fall into the fifth round. As a round-five dart throw, it was well worth the shot, and most prognostications saw him as a bit of a project, who may help on special teams, but will struggle to get on the field as a rookie.
That changed immediately when he recorded a sack in the first quarter. Robinson was in the mix for another half sack and added seven tackles into the mix. I wrote about how Robert Quinn and Al-Quadin Muhammad are not great run defenders, and the team needed someone to step up. Robinson did just that in the run game, easing the load on the two starters.
If you drew up the best outcome from a Dominique Robinson debut, you may not have got the stats he put up. Keep an eye on what he could become, because a lot of the plays he made were all hustle, so you know he will keep playing.