What Matt Eberflus' Plans Say About D-Line in Draft

Speculation could slow over the possible trade of Bears defensive end Robert Quinn after a comment by coach Matt Eberflus.

Then again, they did trade Khalil Mack and no one thought that would be likely.

Either way, they're going to need some help.

During his interview by Cris Collinsworth on a podcast, Eberflus hardly sounded like someone on the verge of shipping a second edge rusher out of town in one offseason.

Once the Bears traded Khalil Mack and allowed many veterans to leave in free agency, it seemed anything was possible for their veterans o defense. But Eberflus considers Quinn a No. 1 player on the line and made this apparent while discussing ho5w he'll use his defensive linemen in the new defense.

"The defensive line, for us, is really about playing in waves," Eberflus told Collinsworth. "So we have eight, nine guys up for the defense (on game day).

"Our No. 1 player, a guy like Robert or guys that we had in the past that were considered No. 1 players, those guys are going to play more than 50%. They're going to play in the 65% (of snaps) range. But most of those guys are going to play 50% or less of the plays."

The reason for this is obvious. Keeping players fresh allows them to play at a higher level throughout games.

"We want those guys playing maximum speed all the time," Eberflus said. "And that might just be 30 plays, that might just be 40 plays, that might be 25 plays and everybody is going to have a role and they're going to understand what that role is."

So for Quinn, it's going to be 65% of snaps or more as the No. 1 player. He had more than that last year at 77% but it was largely due to Mack's foot injury. The year before, he had only 55% and didn't miss an extended period with an injury.

So if it can't be assumed Quinn will remain with the Bears when some needy team could make an offer, it must be considered that they already need defensive linemen themselves simply to produce those waves of players Eberflus wants.

The Bears currently look to have insufficient numbers of players at the defensive end spots on the roster. Getting rid of a key player like Quinn would make their plan for shuttling defensive linemen in and out to stay fresh entirely difficult to accomplish.

Getting rid of him and replacing him with a rookie would be an option but doesn't solve a numbers problems.

Quinn, Al-Quadin Muhammad, Trevis Gipson and possibly Mario Edwards Jr could be ends but Edwards had been playing three technique in a 4-3 rush situation under Matt Nagy and not on the end.  

It's uncertain which players among 3-4 outside linebackers Jeremiah Attaochu, Sam Kamara, Charles Snowden and Ledarius Mack would be considered ends in the 4-3, and so far the Bears haven't made this an easy situation to guess. Either way, none of them are ideal fits. 

In fact, it might be that all of them fail to meet the standards for this.

Once the plans for those players are better known, possibly as soon as next week's minicamp, it will be more apparent whether they could actually even entertain the thought of trading Quinn. 

What is certain is regardless of Quinn's fate, they're going to need defensive linemen in this draft just like they need offensive linemen.