Bears outside linebacker Robert Quinn hopes to turn around his 2020 season

Robert Quinn knows he hasn’t been good enough.

The Bears signed the veteran outside linebacker to a five-year, $70 million contract for one purpose, and one purpose only: to disrupt the opposing quarterback.

Quinn has been a dominant pass rusher in his career, with two Pro Bowl selections to show for it. The biggest criticism against him is that he’s not effective vs. the run. A year ago, the Bears ran right at the then-Cowboys linebacker on a Dec. 5 matchup at Soldier Field, piling up 151 rushing yards in the game.

Quinn plays only half the Bears’ defensive snaps because they know teams will attack him with the run. So what does it mean when an expensive pass rusher is not finding success in the one aspect of the game he’s supposed to excel at?

It means the Bears are searching for answers.

“I’ll be honest, it’s been very average,” Quinn said of his 2020 season. “Not up to my standards. We’ve got six more games left, anything can happen. I know how I prepare. I know how I train. Statistically, it just hasn’t been my season.”

Quinn missed the season opener because of an ankle injury, and returned a week later to face the New York Giants at Soldier Field. On his first snap, a third down during the Bears’ first defensive series, Quinn strip sacked Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. It was quite an entrance for the man who was supposed to ease the pressure on fellow Bears outside linebacker Khalil Mack.

Quinn hasn’t recorded a sack since.

He has nine tackles in nine games. Quinn has three QB hits and two forced fumbles. This season has been a struggle. At this point, the goal has become simply to disrupt the quarterback once per game.

“He has to make one play in the passing game,” outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino said. “Before he can make three or four, he’s got to make one. It’s been a long drought. Nobody’s feeling that any more than Robert.”

After missing Week 1, Quinn has played roughly half the Bears defensive snaps in any one game. The lone exception was Week 9 against the Tennessee Titans, when Quinn played almost 75% of defensive snaps. That number fell back down to 52% a week later against the Minnesota Vikings.

No matter what the snap count has been, Quinn has not capitalized since his first snap of the season. Nearly every week, Quinn rates as one of the Bears’ best pass rushers in NFL Next Gen Stats’ “average separation from the QB” metric. The metric indicates which players were closest to the quarterback on average at the time he released the ball.

Quinn has been better than league average in nearly every game this season. For example, in Week 9 he was on average 3.94 yards from Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill when Tannehill released the ball, which was better than Mack’s 4.63 yards (league average is 4.51) that day.

But close isn’t cutting it for Quinn. He’s doing a good job pushing linemen backwards, he’s just not finishing the job.

“I’m more critical of myself than anyone else,” Quinn said. “Someone may give me praise, but I’m looking at what I did wrong. I’m just trying to be the best player I can be. Why things aren’t going the way I expect them to, I don’t know.”

If Quinn were to find success during these final six weeks – if he were to reach that one QB disruption per game goal – that would only help free things up for Mack on the other side.

“He knows that this is not a difficult game,” Monachino said. “Sometimes we try to make it too difficult. He’s got to focus in on little tiny details that help him finish those rushes. With a player like Robert, we’ve got to evaluate him based on the numbers. And right now, his numbers aren’t where he wants them.”