Under the Microscope: Robert Quinn

Analyzing one of the league's most gifted & skilled pass-rushers

Gas. Juice. Length. Twitchy. Bendy. Freakish. These are some of the adjectives used to describe Robert Quinn when I asked players around the league to explain what makes him so special.

“I was glad that he played right end,” former teammate Chris Long told me when I asked what his first impression of Quinn was when the then St. Louis Rams drafted him 14th overall in 2011. 

Long was entering his fourth season and was on the cusp of posting a career-high 13 sacks. He played left end, so knowing Quinn’s home was opposite him provided a sense of relief and accentuated what Long did well. As a power-rusher, Long’s skill-set matched up perfectly with Quinn’s speed-oriented game, restricting the pocket and eliminating escape routes for quarterbacks. 

“It’s really nice as a power-rusher to have a guy that can run the hoop on the other side and vice versa,” Long said. “When you have those two different levels it acts as a force multiplier when it comes to production for everyone in the group because there’s no spot for the quarterback.” 

”You have one guy at six yards running through a tackle’s inside shoulder (power rusher) and you got one guy at eight and a half yards forcing him to step up.”

Team-builders across the NFL attempt to replicate this principle when building out a defensive line. It applies to the approach Chicago has taken with Quinn now, pairing him with Khalil Mack’s predominantly power-oriented skill-set as a rusher.

On this Quinn sack in Week 6 vs. the Green Bay Packers, you can see Mack attempting to run through the right tackle’s inside shoulder with Quinn running the hoop to close in on QB Aaron Rodgers.