When the Chicago Bears traded Robert Quinn, there was a real question of who would step in and take the snaps. Not only did Quinn take 70% of the defensive snaps, but he also spent every snap against the left tackle.
So, Dominique Robinson would either see a huge step up in snaps, or one of Al-Quadin Muhammad and Trevis Gipson would have to shift from right tackles to left tackle.
How did Chicago Bears divide snaps without Robert Quinn?
The big winner was Al-Quadin Muhammad. He went from a 50-60% player to someone playing 83% of the snaps against the Dallas Cowboys. However, he was the one who was asked to shift to the left side.
Muhammad spent 34 snaps against the left tackle, and 14 against the right tackle. Trevis Gipson saw a nice bump as well. He was living int he 40% range, but last week he was up to 67%. While he played fewer snaps than Muhammad, they did not ask him to move, and rather started him against right tackles.
He spent all 39 snaps against the right tackle. While it could have been assumed that Dominique Robinson would see more snaps because of the move, that was not quite the case. In fact, he went from 40% against New England to 36% against Dallas.
He effectively was in the same exact role, except he was backing up Muhammad and not Quinn. He played 19 snaps, all against left tackles.
Lastly, Kingsley Jonathan was back as the fourth rusher for the Chicago Bears. He played eight snaps, four on each side.
So, overall, it was
Right Tackle
39 snaps for Trevis Gipson
14 snaps for Al-Quadin Muhammad
4 snaps for Kinglsey Jonathan
Left Tackle
34 snaps for Muhammad
19 snaps for Robinson
4 snaps for Jonathan
Are any of these outcomes surprising? If anything, you would have thought that Muhammad would take fewer snaps against left tackles, and Robinson would take a few more. Still, it is good to see that the team is rewarding Gipson, and asking Muhammad to move. Perhaps they will give him a few more weeks with increased snaps on the left side to thank him for moving with no issue, but if he does not produce, they will want to see more from Robinson.