Are Chicago Bears holding this rookie back?
There is a lot of talk about Velus Jones, and whether the Chicago Bears have the right plan, or if they are using him right. However, while Jones is holding himself back, for the most part, the real rookie that should be getting this discussion is the fifth-round pick, Dominique Robinson.
When the Chicago Bears traded Robert Quinn it felt like a great time for the team to give Robinson more playing time. Robinson was the backup when rushing left tackles, and Trevis Gipson and Al-Quadin Muhammad split against the right tackles. This is once again the exact opposite of the Jones situation. The Bears had to move one of these two players to give Robinson less time.
Chicago Bears need to play Dominique Robinson more often
That is exactly what they did. Instead of giving Robinson more snaps, they moved Muhammad to the other side and gave him more snaps.
In the two games before the Quinn trade, Muhammad played 65% and 52%. Those numbers shot up to 83% and 77% with Quinn gone. Meanwhile, Robinson was at 30% and 40% with Quinn and in the past two weeks is at 36% and 40%. He is in the same role, Muhammad just got promoted.
Per PFF, Robinson has a pass rush productivity rating of 9.1 and a pass rush win rate of 13.6%. Meanwhile, Muhammad is at 1.8 and 5.3% respectively.
Robinson has six run stops, and Muhammad has five. That is a 6.8% stop rate to 2.8% in favor of Robinson. The argument that the Chicago Bears should be playing their younger players and seeing what they have rings a lot louder with Robinson than it does with Velus Jones.
Robinson is actually outperforming his competition on the roster but is not getting more chances, while Velus Jones got the chances and did not perform. This is the rookie that we need to be yelling for and wondering why he is not being used more, and given more chances to fail.
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Robinson bites on everything, and that can lead to big runs being broken to the outside on him. Still, it is not like Muhammad is shutting things down. This is a situation where the rookie is being held back by the coaching staff. The staff is too afraid of what could happen and not giving him a chance to do more.