St. Louis Rams Sign Robert Quinn to Extension Through 2019

As the legendary Adam Schefter reported on Saturday, the St. Louis Rams have worked out a four-year contract extension with defensive end Robert Quinn:

Though this deal probably doesn’t include as many years as many people would have liked to have seen given to the elite young pass rusher, it does end up working out pretty well for the Rams. This deal basically insures that they’ll have Quinn under their control for the vast majority of his prime, as he’ll be under contract until he’s 28 years old. (Just as a frame of reference on the shelf life of a defensive end, Quinn’s fellow end, 29-year-old Chris Long, now is going to miss eight to ten weeks after playing in every game of his career up to this point.)

It looked like the Rams might have to match the deal that the Houston Texans recently gave J.J. Watt in order to keep Quinn in the fold. Instead, they were able to give him four less years and save $42.3 million, including $10.6 guaranteed. In addition, Quinn should be effective for a longer period of time considering that he’s a year younger than Watt and will incur less physical damage off the edge than he would playing on the interior like Watt does.

While the prevailing national belief is that Watt is the best pass rusher in the NFL, a strong case can be made for Quinn as well. After all, Quinn’s 19 sacks nearly doubled Watt’s 10.5 last season. Though Watt gets bonus points for doing his work from a position which is historically pretty hard to put up elite pass-rushing numbers from and makes more of an impact as an all-around tackler than Quinn does, the athleticism and technical skills of Quinn firmly entrench him as the best 4-3 defensive end in the game, and very possibly the best pass rusher overall.