AlbaNY_Ram is our cap guru & he's why I wait before I make hasty
opinions about contract extensions, trade cap hits, dead money penalties and contract restructuring in general.
AlbaNY isn't perfect, but he's the best I've seen on all of the Rams message board/forums available on the internet.
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AlbaNY_Ram
I doubt for a second that the Rams will trade for Quinn: to me that's just a story to fill up the dead time between the draft and training camp. But if they wanted him they could definitely afford him.
I also believe that AD will get an extension in the neighborhood you mention. But AD is already under contract thru 2024, so the hypothetical 4 year, $160 extension wouldn't kick in until the 2025 season. If (when?) they do that deal I expect the Rams to lower his 2022 cap hit at the same time by converting around $13M of the money they owe him in 2022 into a signing bonus. In doing so they can give AD a $40M a year deal and also gain over $10M in cap space for the 2022 season. (So instead of a 2022 cap hit of $26.75M, AD's 2022 cap hit could be $16.35M).
Then there's Quinn's deal. He's set to make $12.9M in 2022, but his deal can also be restructured. He's signed thru 2024 so they could add two void years to his deal, convert $11.5M of his 2022 salary to a signing bonus, and prorate that bonus over the 5 years of his deal. That moves $9.2M of his 2022 cap hit to future years and reduces his cap hit in 2022 from $17.1M to $7.9M.
Here's the bottom line:
AD currently has a 2022 cap hit of $26.75M. If the Rams traded for Quinn and did the two restructures I mentioned then AD and Quin would have a combined cap hit in 2022 of $24.25M. (That's $2.5M less that AD's current cap hit!!)