Quinn leads the Bears with 11 sacks and three forced fumbles. | AP Photos
Quinn’s sack total is already the highest by a Bear since Mack in 2018 and ranks third in the NFL, trailing only the Browns’ Myles Garrett and the Steelers’ T.J. Watt. He has been everything critics said he couldn’t be.
If Las Vegas had given odds in the summer on who would be the Bears’ most valuable player this season, the favorite almost certainly would’ve been Khalil Mack or Allen Robinson.
Then there’d be some worthwhile candidates behind them, such as David Montgomery or Roquan Smith and maybe a dark horse like Akiem Hicks or Darnell Mooney.
And near the bottom of the list, perhaps at something along the lines of 100-to-1, would be outside linebacker Robert Quinn — fresh off a season of injuries and minimal impact as everyone ridiculed the Bears for his five-year, $70 million contract.
That fictional betting slip would be about to pay off. The Bears’ gamble on Quinn looks like smart money, too. In a season of nonstop missteps and maladies for the team, he has been their best player.
He looked like one of the worst signings of general manager Ryan Pace’s career with just two sacks in 548 snaps last season, but has rebounded with a team-high 11 sacks and is on track to make a run at matching the 19 sacks he had as an all-pro eight years ago.
“The powers above woke me up and blessed me with some talents, and then just go out there and work hard and have the right mindset,” Quinn said with a shrug. “No matter what people say, just because you’re getting older [doesn’t] mean you become less of a player. I just go out there, work hard, practice hard, and I guess it’s starting to show.”
Quinn’s sack total is already the highest by a Bear since Mack in 2018 — if he gets to 13, he’ll have the most since Richard Dent in ’85 — and ranks third in the NFL, trailing only the Browns’ Myles Garrett and the Steelers’ T.J. Watt. He is a half-sack away from matching his 2019 output for the Cowboys that earned him that contract.
The details make Quinn’s season even more impressive, though, and they illustrate the way he has been everything critics said he couldn’t be.
The big-picture impact of his underperformance last season was that it left Mack without anyone to divert opposing offenses’ attention. Mack had to go it alone and managed just nine sacks.
Now it’s the other way around, however, and Quinn is producing regardless of Mack undergoing season-ending foot surgery. He has 5.5 sacks in the four games since Mack exited.
That speaks to Quinn’s consistency, too. His gaudy total is not the result of one great game, though he did torch the Ravens for a career-high 3.5 sacks a week ago. Quinn has had at least a half-sack in all but two games. Whereas last season it was a surprise anytime he got one, now it’s perplexing when he gets shut out.
Quinn also leads the Bears with five quarterback hurries and three forced fumbles.
At 31, he looks like Gumby again as he circumvents offensive tackles, bending in a way that his torso goes nearly horizontal as he churns his feet to reach the quarterback.
“The powers above blessed me with some uncanny abilities to distort my body the way it does,” said Quinn, a three-time South Carolina state champion in high school wrestling. “Some of it is just a little wrestling and repertoire in my system. Wrestling and pass rushing are kinda a little of the same thing to me… I guess I’ve been training for it my whole life, in a sense.”
Everything has been better for Quinn this season, and that goes deeper than football. Something was truly wrong with him in 2020 — more than just injury trouble. Whatever it was, Quinn has appeared very emotional but preferred to keep that private whenever he has been asked about what he was dealing with and how he got through it.
“Honestly, just mentally and spiritually happy,” he said. “I took a lot of time this offseason and … I talked to some good friends, some pastors, and got myself mentally and spiritually right and brushed off the nonsense of last year, and I guess the weight I was holding is done and over with.
“I was in a rough place last year and I think my performance showed that.”
Now he’s showing something different, and the outlook on his future with the Bears is dramatically brighter. The conversation surrounding Quinn last season centered on how soon the Bears could escape his massive contract. He’s been worth every cent this season and looks like he’ll still be a valuable asset for a while.
