Rams To Trade Robert Quinn To Dolphins

The Rams have agreed to another big trade. They are going to ship Robert Quinn to the Dolphins in exchange for a mid-round pick, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links).

The Rams discussed dealing the eighth-year edge defender to the Chiefs for Marcus Peters, but the sides settled on a second- and fourth-round pick. Now, it looks like the Rams are getting a trade pick back to help compensate for the mid-rounders they sent for Peters and Sammy Watkins over the past several months.

Miami will send its fourth- and sixth-round picks to Los Angeles for Quinn and a sixth-rounder, Peter Schrager of NFL.com tweets. The Rams had three sixth-round picks in this draft, after collecting the third in the Peters deal, and it’s uncertain which one they will send to the Dolphins. The Dolphins also had two fourth-rounders after the Jay Ajayi trade as well, so it’s also not known which pick they agreed to include in this deal.

Quinn has two years and just more than $25MM remaining on his second NFL contract, and he’ll now return to a 4-3 scheme after spending 2017 in Wade Phillips‘ 3-4. While Quinn bounced back to start 14 games after being limited to fewer than 10 during the two prior years, he has not been the dominant force he was in St. Louis. But he will only be set for his age-28 season in 2018, so the Dolphins are betting the former first-round pick has some quality years left.

The former North Carolina prodigy compiled three straight seasons of 10-plus sacks from 2012-14, with that stretch peaking via 2013’s 19-sack season that placed Quinn on the top All-Pro team. He registered 8.5 sacks last season and has 62.5 for his career to go along with an impressive 21 forced fumbles (seven in that All-Pro slate). A back injury and a concussion limited Quinn to just 17 games during the 2015 and ’16 seasons.

This move is interesting financially for the Dolphins, who are projected to be $8MM-plus over the cap. They have given Jarvis Landry permission to find a trade and don’t look intent on carrying his $16.2MM franchise tag on their books. But Quinn is set for $12MM-plus cap numbers in each of the next two seasons. But none of that money is guaranteed.

With Quinn representing the third-highest cap hold on the Rams’ payroll, this will help a franchise that has multiple marquee UFAs it would like to retain in Watkins and Lamarcus Joyner and a looming extension for probably the best defensive player in football. The Rams entered Friday with $39.9MM in cap space.

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