Quinn traded to Dolphins
Rams clear $12 million in cap space with another major move before the draft.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Rams continued to make over their roster and create salary-cap space Friday, agreeing to trade linebacker Robert Quinn to the Miami Dolphins, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
The trade cannot become official until the NFL’s new league year on March 14. The deal involves unspecified picks in this year’s draft.
It is the second major predraft deal for the Rams, who last week agreed to a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs for cornerback Marcus Peters.
The trade ends Quinn’s seven-year run with the Rams, who selected him out of North Carolina with the 14th pick in the 2011 draft.
Quinn, 27, is scheduled to earn $10.3 million this season, and carries a salary-cap number of $12.4 million, according to overthecap.com.
In January, a few days after the Rams’ playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons, general manager Les Snead was asked about possible roster decisions involving Quinn and linebacker Mark Barron, who carries a salary-cap number of $10 million in 2018.
“All decisions like that are tough, but I like to say I think the goal is not necessarily to save money,” Snead said. “The goal is to make sure we can fit everybody into the budget. Because sometimes saving money, that kind of means we’re attacking an individual player just to save money. But it’s really looking at the budget, the cap situation for this year, and the cap situation for next year, and the next.”
“Then we go [to the] ’18 [season], how do we improve and then keep the core together? So, it’s not necessarily looking at just salaries.”
Quinn has 621⁄2 career sacks, including 81⁄2 last season, when he switched from defensive end to edge-rushing linebacker in coordinator Wade Phillips’ 3-4 scheme.
In 2013, Quinn led the NFL with 19 sacks and made the Pro Bowl. He repeated as a Pro Bowl selection in 2014 with 101⁄2 sacks.
But Quinn suffered a back injury and played in only eight games in 2015 before surgery. He returned in 2016, but played in only nine games because of a series of injuries, and finished the season on injured reserve.
Quinn came back strong last season. He played in 15 games and provided leadership for a defense that ranked fifth in takeaways and helped the Rams earn their first playoff berth since 2004.
Quinn’s departure will increase the Rams’ focus on edge rushers and linebackers in free agency, which begins in a few weeks, and in the April 26-28 draft.
Veteran Connor Barwin is a pending free agent. Cory Littleton played in Barron’s place in several games.