Robert Quinn can pass Richard Dent this week. Here’s how he put 2020 behind him

Robert Quinn stepped up to the podium wearing his trademark beanie.

It was the middle of summer. July 28, to be exact, the same day the Bears held their first practice of training camp 2021 at Halas Hall in Lake Forest.

Coming off a two-sack season, without a doubt the worst of his career, this was Quinn’s first public appearance since the 2020 season ended. He minced no words.

“It was a bad year,” Quinn said. “Yeah. Unless you like those types of stats.”

Two sacks. Zero tackles for loss. Six QB hits. All career worsts. A total of 20 tackles, a career worst outside of the 2016 season when he played in only nine games.

Bears general manager Ryan Pace let former first-round draft pick Leonard Floyd walk away in free agency prior to the 2020 season. Pace signed Quinn as his replacement with a five-year contract worth a guaranteed $30 million and up to a potential $70 million.

Floyd had 10.5 sacks in 2020 and fans everywhere ridiculed Pace for those decisions.

Nobody is ridiculing the moves now.

With one more sack this season, Quinn would set a new franchise mark for sacks in a single season. Quinn’s 17 sacks trail only Richard Dent’s 17.5 sacks during the 1984 season. He trails Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt by half a sack and could become the first Bears player to lead the NFL in sacks since Dent led the league with 17 sacks in 1985.

Anybody who points out that Quinn might need a 17th game to do it would be wrong because Quinn missed one game due to COVID-19 protocols.

But Quinn – baggy sweatpants, beanie and all – has never once worried about the doubters. Yet, he has silenced them nonetheless.

“Richard Dent is a household name around here,” Quinn said following Sunday’s win over Seattle. “To even be in that same conversation, it’s an honor.”

Dent finished his Bears career with 124.5 sacks. He was the MVP of Super Bowl XX and went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. His single-season sack record has stood for 37 years. Quinn will have two more chances to top it.

Regardless of how this season ends for Quinn, this has been a remarkable turnaround for the 31-year-old pass rusher, who will go to his third Pro Bowl and his first in seven years. He’s probably not going to win the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award (it has gone to only one defensive player in the past decade), but he should be in the conversation.

Quinn has done it by trusting in his process and staying true to himself. While the 2020 numbers speak for themselves, so does the tape. The tape showed a Quinn who was always coming close to the quarterback, always disrupting the pocket, just not quite finishing the job.

“Focus on trying to get six inches better, because six inches could be the difference in the game,” said Bears outside linebackers coach Bill Shuey, who works directly with Quinn on a daily basis. “And if you look at it, there was one play in that last game [against the Seahawks] where he was about six inches from a strip sack. And we’re going to look at that and see if we can get six inches closer to that ball. That’s the mentality we’ve had. That’s Rob’s mentality.”

Ask anybody at Halas Hall about Quinn, and they will say a variation of the same thing: Rob is just Rob.

That means the beanie. That means the laid back attitude. That means a guy who is simply thankful to wake up every morning and take on a new day. He says things like that and he means it literally. Quinn has been living with a benign brain tumor most of his life. It has shaped the way he sees the world.

When things are going well, he doesn’t get too high. When things are not going well, he doesn’t get too low.

“He doesn’t take the next day for granted,” Shuey said. “I know he says that a lot. And I do believe that’s real. He lives that way. He believes that. And so I think in this situation, where he’s on the cusp of potentially breaking a record, he’s really looking at how can I get a little bit better.”

Quinn has benefitted as much as anyone from the relaxed COVID-19 protocols that were in place most of the 2021 season until the recent coronavirus surge. His ability to be around his teammates more frequently has made all the difference.

[ Robert Quinn aims for bounce-back season. It all starts with his mindset ]

“He’s big on energy, he’s full of life,” Bears safety Eddie Jackson said. “That’s just the type of person he is. But there’s not too much that he’s going to let affect him.”

Asked earlier this month if he sets statistical goals for himself, Quinn said yes, he does. He prefers to keep those to himself.

But as a guy who admits that he does look at the numbers, setting the Bears sack record has to mean something to him, as does reaching 100 career sacks, which he can do with half a sack more.

“I don’t know how it wouldn’t be [meaningful],” Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “I know he’s a humble guy and we all want the wins first, right? You’re in this sport to win as a team, and so that’s still our primary focus as we go into the Giants game. And if he gets it, yeah, I think it will be meaningful.”