At every turn, Bears coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace said how happy they were with Leonard Floyd despite him never getting sacks.
And the first chance they got, they shelled out $70 million to replace him.
While using the No. 9 overall pick in 2016 on a speculative investment of turning Floyd, who wasn’t a pass rusher, into a pass rusher was foolish of the Bears, at least they had the sense to move on. It’s human nature for a GM to cling to a player he chose so highly with the hope that someday he’d break through.
But to Pace’s credit, he dealt in reality rather than wishful thinking and got the Bears out of Floyd’s $13.2 million option for this season. The Bears signed Robert Quinn instead, and Floyd went to the Rams on a one-year, $10 million contract.
“He’s just relentless,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “The versatility, the length — I think you’re seeing a relentless competitor that plays with an effort that is everything he has, every single snap.
“We love Leonard, and Leonard’s been extremely productive and great to be around here.”
Floyd gets his first opportunity to show the Bears they were wrong about him when the teams meet Monday. So far, though, they’ve come out ahead on the Floyd-Quinn swap.
The versatility that McVay praised isn’t necessarily a compliment in Floyd’s case. The Bears would’ve far preferred him to be a one-dimensional player specializing in pass rush — exactly what Quinn is — than be decent in a variety of categories. No matter how much Nagy claimed to “really like where he’s at” last season and raved about how “he’s done a lot of great things,” the truth is the Bears needed more than 18.5 sacks in 2,810 snaps.
Quinn had 19 for the Rams in the 2013 season alone and has averaged nearly nine per season before signing with the Bears. He has just one so far, but the more he has been on the field, the more Khalil Mack has gotten one-on-one matchups. Mack, Quinn and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks are each so potent that offenses can’t key in on any one of them, and the expectation is that Quinn will reach double digits for the fifth time in his career as long as he stays healthy.
That was never the trajectory for Floyd. Each season, his playing time went up and his sack total went down. He bottomed out at three sacks last season — zero in his final eight games — before the Bears finally gave up.
Floyd was at a loss, too, with no explanation for why he hadn’t been able to do what the Bears drafted him to do.
“I just go out and play football as hard as I can for the team to win,” he said last December. “Whatever plays I make, I make them.”
He’s getting another ideal opportunity this season with the sack-happy Rams under defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, his position coach with the Bears in 2017 and ’18. With all-pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald leading the NFL with 7.5 sacks, Floyd should see relatively clean blocking schemes, but that hasn’t translated to sacks yet. He had one in the opener, another in Week 3 and none since.
At this point, five seasons into his career, there’s little indication he’s ever going to be a great pass rusher. And the Bears were smart to stop waiting for that.
