Bears’ Rookie Hyppolite Could Solve Allen’s Scramble Problem—Speed to Spy Mobile QBs

A good role for the Bears to consider with rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite beyond special teams and waiting for a starter to suffer injury would be as a specialist of sorts.

He could be insurance against scrambling quarterbacks.

Many rookies just sit the bench as Day 3 draft picks, and even some from Day 2 do, as well. Hyppolite has one quality that lets the Bears defense use him in a specialist role even when he isn't a starter.

He'd be an ideal spy linebacker to limit scrambling QBs.

Hyppolite ran a 40-yard dash at Maryland's pro day clocked by some at 4.39 seconds and others in the low 4.4s.

Either way, it was a speed more often associated with wide receivers, running backs or cornerbacks rather than linebackers.

During OTAs and minicamp he said he only gave a glimpse of this even though he got to take plenty of reps with starters with starting linebacker T.J. Edwards out with an injury.

"I mean obviously I have it," he said of his speed. "It's all about understanding the tempo and how to use it and when to use it, when to not.

"I've been able to gauge that over these, six, seven weeks we've been here. It's been a great adjustment period for me. Now it's time to go full speed.”

A reason the Bears can use something like a specialist spy for QBs is the number of mobile passers they'll face and also because this has been a real problem defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's defenses had in New Orleans.

J.J. McCarthy, Dak Prescott, Geno Smith, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, Brock Purdy, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson and Jordan Love all have good or excellent mobility and face the Bears defense.

As 41-year-olds go, Aaron Rodgers has some mobililty as well.

The Bears face the top three rushing quarterbacks from last year in Daniels, Jackson and Hurts.

Running quarterbacks have been a real problem for Allen's defenses at times. Allen's Saints defense got burned by Bears QB Tyson Bagent in 2023 and he wasn't exactly known to be a scrambler.

Part of the problem could be attributed to the age of his defense just before his firing at midseason last year.

Some of their top players had become long of tooth, chiefly edge rusher Cameron Jordan, linebacker Demario Davis. Defensive back Tyrann Mathieu was in his 30s, as well.

However, it's a problem for any defense that plays man-to-man defense to give up big gains to scramblers because the cornerbacks and sometimes safeties have their backs to the line of scrimmage in coverage.

The Bears really haven't had to worry much about it in recent years. Their defense under Matt Eberflus as heavily zone. While Vic Fangio, Chuck Pagano and Sean Desai were defensive coordinators under Matt Eberflus and John Fox, it was still heavily zone.

Fangio definitely wasn't much of a blitzer and he showed this again in the Super Bowl in Philadelphia by rushing four and beating the Chiefs' pass blockers anyway.

The scheme Allen has been putting in is heavily man-to-man and players have said they love this chance to go head-to-head but it's going to take some getting used to after they haven't done it for so long in Chicago.

One way to prevent big plays by running QBs would be a linebacker who runs faster than the QB.