‘It’s scary, man’: Robert Quinn provides the Eagles with yet another weapon for their Super Bowl chase
Quinn, who was acquired from the Bears in a trade on Wednesday, practiced and spoke to the media on Thursday at the NovaCare Complex.
Robert Quinn arrived at the Eagles’ locker room before the team could even install a nameplate above his new space.
Perhaps they still were working out exactly which name he prefers.
“I can go by Robert, Rob, Bob, Bobby, Q, Bobby Q,” Quinn said, laughing. “... I can go by anything as long as it ain’t disrespectful.”
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Quinn joined his new team Thursday, roughly 24 hours after the Eagles sent a fourth-round pick to the Chicago Bears for the 32-year-old edge rusher. After locating his locker, distinguishable thanks to the No. 98 jersey hanging on the side of the stall, Quinn was greeted by fellow veteran pass rusher Brandon Graham.
The whirlwind of getting traded, traveling to a new city, downloading all of the faces and names of a different organization, and studying a foreign playbook left Quinn overwhelmed by the time he walked up to the podium after practice. Still, the former All-Pro said his earlier interaction with Graham was particularly meaningful.
“He’s got a year or two over me,” Quinn said. “To have the OG of the team walk up to me, it makes you feel appreciated. It makes you feel welcome. I appreciated that, him trying to help me through this transition as easily as possible. For him being the older guy, he’s got a lot of respect around here.”
Graham, 34, and the rest of the Eagles roster will spend part of the week incorporating Quinn into an already-productive defensive front. Quinn said the process of learning the playbook and the terminology of defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s scheme will be the biggest challenge in getting acclimated. He has experience in both odd and even fronts during his career, but he made note of the differences in verbiage.
“Schemes may be similar, but terminology is a lot different,” Quinn said. “All defenses are kind of similar, but terminology will be the challenge, just learning terminology to perfection.”
Quinn racked up 18½ sacks last season en route to a second-team All-Pro nod and an invitation to the Pro Bowl. He has recorded just one sack so far this season, although it’s worth mentioning that he has drawn plenty of double teams from opposing offenses because of the Bears’ thin pass rush.
According to ESPN, he’s been double-teamed on 29% of his pass rushes this season.
“Robert’s a really, really good player,” Eagles center Jason Kelce said. “He’s been a double-digit sack guy pretty much his whole career. This year, I know the numbers may not be there, but he’s a very tough matchup for a lot of tackles in the NFL. I think it’s a similar system for him. He’s played in things like this before. So hopefully it will be an easy acquisition on that end.”
Quinn likely will be a rotational edge rusher with the Eagles rather than a main fixture. Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat are the established starters with Graham working in as the top reserve.
Quinn figures to take the snaps of young rushers like Patrick Johnson and Tarron Jackson, who averaged about 15 snaps combined this season. Quinn averaged 43 snaps a game for the Bears, and should settle somewhere in between those two numbers with the Eagles.
“I’ve told everyone, I want to come in and do my part,” Quinn said. “They’ve been rocking and rolling before I got here. I don’t want to mess anything up, just trying to add whatever I can to help make this team better and basically stay out of the way.”
The benefit of having four players who can win off the edge with consistency is being able to keep guys fresh throughout the game. The Eagles had similarly deep rotations in 2017 and 2018, with Chris Long notably working in with the starting group up front during the team’s Super Bowl run.
“It’s scary, man,” Graham said. “When you make it to the fourth quarter and you’re still feeling like you’re in the first, man. The O-linemen got to play the whole game. That’s advantage us, but it’s all about how we execute. It’s what we do with it. We have a great rotation, we know that, but it’s just what we do with it with our reps.”
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Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson, who said “there isn’t a whole lot of good that comes from playing O-line besides the money” on Thursday, highlighted the disadvantage pass protectors are at when facing a fresh group of rushers late in games. Johnson also hinted that Quinn likely would spend most of his time lined up over the left tackle and spelling Sweat on that side.
“He’s a great player,” Johnson said. “I’m excited to get him. You can’t have enough great pass rushers. Him and Sweat on one side, Haason [Reddick] and BG on the other, and the guys up the middle, it’s going to be a tough task to block all those guys.”
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Quinn and Reddick have some similarities. Both edge rushers have a track record of winning with bend around the edge, and they each have a tendency of putting together multi-sack games. Quinn has logged at least two sacks 18 times in his 12-year career. Reddick has done so four times.
“I knew he had a crazy year last year,” Reddick said. “[Shoot], man, I’m happy to have him here. The more help we have, the more people that can help us build toward our goal. It was a great move.”