Does Quinn trade mean Rams will have new deal for Donald soon?

With the Los Angeles Rams freeing up salary cap space following the Robert Quinn trade, could a new deal for Aaron Donald be coming sooner rather than later?

Earlier in the week, Los Angeles Rams fans were pleased to hear the news surrounding Aaron Donald and how his representatives would be meeting with the team in Indianapolis, leaving many to believe that it would only be a matter of time before a new deal would fall into place. However, that’s always easier said than done when taking numerous factors into consideration for the Rams, whether it involves making salary cap space by moving on from certain players or looking ahead to the future when players like Jared Goff and Todd Gurley will be looking for new deals.

With that being said, Los Angeles made a surprise move on Friday after the news broke how the team had agreed to a trade that would send Robert Quinn to the Miami Dolphins. Sadly, Quinn has been a fan favorite over the years when looking at how much of an impact he’s made on the Rams’ defense, and his presence alone was one of the main reasons why the unit was so successful last season while helping the team pull the unthinkable of winning the NFC West title.

However, when taking into consideration that Quinn’s base salary alone for 2018 would have been $10.3 million, this decision by Los Angeles to trade the linebacker to Miami is huge from a salary cap standpoint. And with the team all of a sudden freeing up some space, it’s hard for fans not to speculate what this could mean in regards to a new deal for Donald.

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For player who continues to get better with experience, and is coming off another career year in which he recorded 11 sacks to go along with five forced fumbles, many believe Donald deserves to be the league’s highest paid player on defense. After seeing how close Donald was to holding out during the regular season, the Rams deserve credit for addressing this situation to avoid another incident like last August and September. Nobody needs to explain just how special of a player Donald truly is to Los Angeles on defense, and it will be interesting to see if conversation heats up over a new potential deal since the team has a little extra money to spend following the Quinn trade.