Matt Eberflus, for all his flaws, is one of the better defensive coaches in the NFL. He'd put together a pretty good defense for the Chicago Bears during his tenure, even though things fell apart last season. When Dennis Allen arrived this year, he was tasked with picking up the pieces and building on what Eberflus had done. One of the toughest jobs was overseeing the development of younger players. Gervon Dexter already has 2.5 sacks through five games, putting him on pace for a career high of eight. Tyrique Stevenson has played some of his best football over the past few weeks. Noah Sewell has become a solid starter at linebacker. However, the biggest stunner has to do with a name everybody forgot.
Everybody had thought Dominique Robinson was a lost cause. The former 5th round pick out of Miami of Ohio had 1.5 sacks in his first game as a pro. Then he had just a half sack all the way through the 2024 season. Most expected him to be cut by the end of training camp this year. It was a shock when Allen chose to keep him around. Five games into the season, Robinson has 1.5 sacks and is fourth on the team with six QB pressures despite playing only 49 snaps.
Did Allen manage the impossible?
Dennis Allen is no stranger to developing lost causes.
John Jenkins had done little as a rotational backup defensive tackle for New Orleans in two years. When Dennis Allen arrived in 2015, he posted a career high 49 tackles and became a reliable run defender. That helped sustain him enough to draw interest from other teams, and he's had a 13-year career to date. Allen also helped rescue the floundering career of cornerback Eli Apple, who'd had a rough exit from New York. The Bears' defensive coordinator has proven many times that he can get the most out of a player, even if they might've struggled before his arrival. Robinson will probably never be an elite pass rusher, but his progress from where he was a year ago is hard to ignore.
Getting anything out of him should be considered a miracle. Fans wrote him off several months ago. If this upward trend continues, he might be one of the best comeback stories in recent memory.
