Chicago Bears: Khalil Mack, 5 takeaways from Chuck Pagano’s press conference
3. He’ll have to adjust, but Robert Quinn will thrive in this defense
One of the biggest moves the Chicago Bears made this offseason was signing All-Pro Robert Quinn.
The Bears made a big investment in Khalil Mack and need for him to continue to be the great player he’s been in his career. With Leonard Floyd failing to take some attention away from Mack the last two seasons, the team decided to part ways with him. Now, in Floyd’s place, they have Quinn.
Quinn has 80.5 sacks in his career, 11.5 of them coming last season. He has a tendency of getting into opponents’ backfield. In 2019, he had 13 tackles for loss and 22 quarterback hits to go with the sacks.
Combining Quinn with Mack may give opposing quarterbacks nightmares. Quinn will do what Floyd couldn’t. Quinn might have to make an adjustment, however. He is used to playing end in a 4-3 defensive scheme. In Chicago, he’ll be a 3-4 outside linebacker. He did play some in a 3-4 scheme when he was with the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 but admitted that he wasn’t very comfortable playing in that scheme. He did have 8.5 sacks that year, though.
Pagano knows that Quinn will need to make an adjustment. He’s seen it before when he was coaching the Indianapolis Colts and Robert Mathis, per the Chicago Sun-Times:
"There’ll be some adjustment for him. I remember going to Indy in 2012 and calling Robert Mathis in and having a discussion about playing outside linebacker in the 3-4… It took a long time — a lot of film, a lot of dialogue to get him to say, ‘OK, I’m in… So there’s definitely some hurdles to get over. But we’ll do the right thing for Robert. It’s going to be on myself and our staff to put all our players in the best possible position to be successful, so we’ll be smart about that."
Mathis had eight sacks with the Colts in 2012. In 2013, however, he recorded 19.5 sacks and 10 forced fumbles. He finished second in voting for the Defensive Player of the Year award that season.
The transition this time should be easier for Quinn. Having Hicks and Mack helping him makes life easier. Add one of the toughest secondaries in the league and it shouldn’t take Quinn long to get going with the Bears. It’ll be fun to see Mack and Quinn terrorize opponents in 2020.