The Chicago Bears traded Robert Quinn for a fourth-round pick in a move that makes plenty of sense from the perspective of Ryan Poles. Of course, the team will be losing a huge piece of the defense and a starting edge rusher, but the loss may end up opening more time for rookie Dominique Robinson.
Robinson has been a surprise revelation and has flashed at moments in every game this season. He has caused pressures, lined up inside, drew holds, and batted a pass that led to a pick on Monday night.
The team also seems to love his hustle, as he clearly buys into the HITS formula. With that in mind, they are probably itching to see him in a bigger role.
While most fans assume that Trevis Gipson will get a big increase in snaps, that may not be the case, or at least not as many as some would assume.
The Chicago Bears have moved their lineman around at times, but for the most part, Trevis Gipson and Al-Quadin Muhammad have platooned against right tackles, while Robert Quinn always is up against the left tackle, and Robinson has typically backed him up in that role.
The team moves Robinson around, but that is mainly to get him on the field a bit more since Quinn leads the edge group in snaps.
So, they could move Gipson to a new side, and will at times, but the real increase will probably come from Robinson, while Gipson and Muhammad continue to stay in their roles.
Robinson would slide into the Quinn role, which he was backing up anyways, and then Kingsley Jonathan would take a small percentage of snaps away from Robinson as the backup.
The Chicago Bears drafted Robinson, while they still do not trust Gipson to start over Muhammad. They likely want to see the upside of Robinson, and how he can handle an every-down workload.
If Robinson steps up and looks even better with a bigger snap share, the team could be set and could have found a huge steal in the late rounds. At the same time, they could realize that while Robinson is nice as a rotational piece, they still need to replace Robert Quinn.
Do not be surprised if Robinson jumps from fourth in snaps amongst edge rushers all the way up to first with the loss of Robert Quinn. That type of jump could be expected as they look to see how much upside the biggest unknown of the group has.