I miss Robert Quinn.
He was a pivotal member of a St. Louis Rams era that was filled with raw talent and skill, but was ultimately mismanaged and not coached properly. The combination of Jeff Fisher, Gregg Williams and whichever dope was calling the offense that season wasted a young roster that could have possibly changed the landscape of the NFL and the franchise’s future.
Not only in where they chose to call their home but in what month they would consistently end their season with mid-January or preferably February being the ideal expiration dates.
Year after year, the efforts and talent of Quinn and those Rams teams were wasted. No playoffs. No winning seasons. The Rams were only good enough to be thrown into wild preseason predictions and conversations every August only to find themselves clawing their way to their sixth or seventh win by December.
Quinn went from being one of the faces of this franchise to being just another guy added to the roster in the off-season. Since his trade to Miami in the 2018 off-season, Quinn’s never stayed on a team for more than a season despite having a small resurgence.
Typically, these newsletters bring old games to life. But this week, since the Rams are playing Miami, I couldn’t help but think about Robert Quinn. Plus, there’s not a single Rams-Dolphins game I give a crap about. These two aren’t exactly known for having a history beyond the random scheduling.
I can hardly bear to watch them play the Dolphins because Miami’s had horrible jerseys. Even the cool retro uniforms suck. But their new uniforms and logos are God-awful.
The first-round pick
LOL, remember those? The Rams had one in 2011 and chose to use theirs on an unproven raw talent out of North Carolina. He showed a lot of promise in the first two years of playing in the ACC with this second season (2009) seeing him rank amongst the Top 20 pass-rushers in the country. As a sophomore, he reached double-digit sacks and set the table for a highly anticipated junior year….
….which never came to be due to an NCAA scandal. This is a relative an often overused term because, in the NCAA, anything is a scandal. A kid receiving a ride from the football facility to someone’s house is considered a scandal. Any kid making any amount of money for themselves while playing in the NCAA is a scandal.
In this case, Robert Quinn and several other teammates received a slew of benefits. In Quinn’s case, he received travel accommodations and jewelry and then made it worse by lying to investigators about receiving it.
Whoops. There goes cawledge footbawl.
Despite playing just two seasons, Quinn was still projected to be a first-rounder and with the 14th pick, he joined a Rams team that many believed were on the brink of becoming a winning football team again.
Quinn was the first-round pick, but he wasn’t even the most interesting part of the team coming in 2011. After a 7-9 season, Spagnuolo and then-GM Billy Devaney put all the chips in. They got veteran talent and a sharp offensive coordinator from the New England Patriots named Josh McDaniels. They had a healthy Sam Bradford. This was their year.
And then like most things during that era of Rams football, the whole thing blew up. The team sucked. The front office was cleaned out and Jeff Fisher took over.
The Peak
In a perfect world, the Rams would hang a banner commemorating Robert Quinn’s amazing 2013 season. But that will never happen because 1.) the world is imperfect and 2.) every stadium is a giant mall and unfit for hanging banners.
In 2013, Quinn recorded 19 sacks which broke the franchise’s single-season sack record of 18 (held by Kevin Carter). He had at least one sack in 11 games and double-digit sacks in five games. Eight sacks came against the NFC West and he had 3-sack game against Arizona and Seatle.
He was First-Team All-Pro and named the Defensive Player of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association. Quinn was fourth in NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting because the NFL voters are full of morons.
The Rams finished 7-9 that season and dead-last in the division. Seattle, Arizona and San Francisco all finished with 10 wins or more. But not the Rams. They were relegated to another pathetic finish as a result of missed opportunities. Again.
The Journey Since
Whenever a favorite of mine leaves the team, the hope is that they win with whoever they play for. I desperately wanted Steven Jackson to win Atlanta. I was ecstatic when Chris Long won with Philly and New England.
I wanted the same for Quinn, but so far that hasn’t been the case. I don’t know if it ever will be.
I did, however, enjoy seeing his resurgence with the Dallas Cowboys in 2019, a season that should have been the final year of his extension with the Rams (which he signed in 2014). But a lot changed after the 2013 season, including his role with the team. Aaron Donald came into the picture and slowly became the spearhead of the defense. Quinn’s production dipped into single digits (including his TFL) and while he bounced back with an 8.5 sack season in 2017, he was traded during the 2018 draft.
The Rams and Dolphins swapped sixth-round picks and Miami received Quinn. The addition of Quinn didn’t work out as Miami would’ve hoped. The Dolphins finished 29th in the league in sacks with 31 and were looking to ship Quinn — their sack-leader (6.5) — in exchange for picks.
Dallas took Quinn in exchange for another six-round pick (what the hell is with the sixth-round picks?).
Despite having to endure another season without a winning record (Dallas was 8-8), Quinn recorded his first double-digit sack season since 2014 and led the Cowboys with 11.5, 5.5 more than the next Cowboy defender.
We’ll always have St. Louis
Being a fan of a team, especially this one, is complicated. You become invested with the players and the coaches and develop a weird relationship where you find yourself hoping that this stranger you see on TV ends up having a positive end to his or her career.
It’s odd, but I can’t help it no matter how old I get. My appreciation for guys like Robert Quinn is as strong as it was in 2011 and 2012 and 2013 and so on.
And that appreciation for the individual bleeds into a hatred of the team itself. Thinking back to how the team wasted the talents of Robert Quinn and Chris Long and Marc Bulger and Danny Amendola can bum me out. And sometimes it can even drive me to learn how to sew in order to make voodoo dolls for which to take my frustration out on.
But of course, instead of learning to sew, I learn that sewing itself is boring and worthless and just settle for lambasting former coaches and front-office executives on Twitter.
What Robert Quinn gave the Rams and fans like myself is irreplaceable.
He gave us everything he had, and I will never forget that.
I miss Robert Quinn.