Here’s the good news: the Robert Quinn trade? It is official. The Dolphins managed to get something for a defensive veteran who they were fairly intent on not paying his full $12.9M salary in 2019. The bad news? The returns for Quinn are leaner than expected: just a 2020 6th-round draft selection.
Miami’s rumored asking price was a 2020 4th-round pick, so how did we get here? Seeing such a lean offering coming back for Quinn begs some questions, but there was always going to be more at play here than just teams swapping a player and a pick.
Remember: the Dolphins were rumored to be willing to pay down Quinn’s salary in order to entice a team to give them a better draft pick. Somewhere along the line, that dynamic changed. So the good news is that the Dolphins don’t have to write the Cowboys a check to go with Quinn.
Quinn, to his own credit, was the one who made the sacrifice. The Dolphins already paid Quinn $1.1M for a roster bonus at the beginning of the league season. He was due another $11.8M in base salary, but with this trade toh Dallas comes a revised contract.
Quinn’s new deal in Dallas is for 1-year, $8M with an additional $1M in incentives. So instead of Miami writing a check, Quinn willingly took a pay-cut of potentially $3.8M to help facilitate the deal.
While Dolphins fans should be a little disappointed to get just a 6th-round pick in 2020 for Quinn, remember this: they weren’t keen on keeping him, the got something for him anyway and they didn’t have to pay up to make it happen.
