Los Angeles Rams make right decision on declining John Sullivan’s contract

The Los Angeles Rams announced on Tuesday they will not be picking up the option on John Sullivan’s contract for the 2019 season.

After the Los Angeles Rams found out the news they were hoping for in regards to Andrew Whitworth announcing his decision to return for a third season with the team, one of the next questions the team was expected to deal with involved John Sullivan.

Two years ago when Sean McVay came on board as the new head coach for the Rams, Sullivan ended up being one of the players he would eventually sign to help fill a need at center on the offensive line.

In comparison to other players at his position across the league, Sullivan wasn’t considered a top center, but his experience over the years leading up to 2017 made him an intriguing option for Los Angeles.

Despite only starting one game in 2016 as a member of the Washington Redskins, it was the previous seven years Sullivan played with the Minnesota Vikings in which he started 93 of 109 games that stood out the most.

Unfortunately, it looks like Sullivan’s time with the Rams is coming to an end after the team decided to decline his option for the 2019 season, meaning the veteran is expected to hit the open market in free agency.

As great as it is to hear Los Angeles feeling confident in Brian Allen, this was still an extremely tough decision by the organization since Sullivan has been a key member of the offensive line over the last two seasons, and his presence has played a key role in the turnaround with McVay.

With that being said, as great of a leader as Sullivan has been over the last two seasons with the Rams, it was clear towards the end of 2018 that he was on a bit of a decline, which is part of the reason why Los Angeles didn’t want to invest the $6.25 million on him next season.

The good news for the Rams is McVay never would have made this move if he didn’t feel confident enough in being able to make the right adjustments with Sullivan no longer being part of the picture to make sure the unit continues to be in great shape.