With Quin Looking For An Extension, The DLP Writing Staff Takes A Look At His Value To The Team.

Glover Quin will likely be getting an extension coming to him in the near future. It is always risky extending veterans who are entering the final stretch of their career. Quin seems to have aged well, and while he has had statistically down seasons, he has not been remotely close to becoming a liability to the defense. The DLP writing staff shared their thoughts on what the extension might look like, what we can expect from Glover Quin in the twilight of his career, and what they think about giving him a new contract.

When it comes to contract matters – whether it be extending a player already on the roster, or signing a free agent – the discussion often becomes an episode of The Price Is Right. I’d like to avoid that same, old song-and-dance, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to. We were taught in car sales that once price equals value, a deal will be reached. So, what’s Glover Quin’s value?

The Lions have a huge need at safety moving forward. That’s part of it. On April 23rd, I shot out a tweet that noted the only defensive backs signed past 2018 are Darius Slay and Miles Killebrew, with Killebrew being the only safety signed past 2017. Quin will be about 32 years and 9 months old by Week one of the 2018 season. That’s old, even for a safety. But, Quin sees it differently. “Thirty-one as a safety, you’re kind of probably in your prime because you’re kind of seeing the game like a quarterback now.”

And he’s not wrong. Another part of it is the fact that he’s one of the most-tenured Lions at this point. After Don Muhlbach (2004), Matthew Stafford (2009), Don Carey (2011), and Tahir Whitehead (2012), Glover has been with the team longer than any other player on the roster. He’s also the most seasoned starter on defense. Taking all this into consideration, the Lions can make use of his services moving forward.

I’d look at Reggie Nelson’s 2-year, $8.5M deal (with $4M guaranteed) as a benchmark for a potential Quin extension. Nelson, a ballhawking safety like Quin, was 32 years old and coming off a Pro Bowl season with the Bengals when he signed that deal with the Oakland Raiders. A similar deal would be a no-brainer for the Lions, and it wouldn’t mark much of a departure from the average annual salary of Glover Quin’s current deal ($4.7M). I think such a contract makes sense for both sides.

Glover Quin will be back in Detroit after the 2017 season. He will be 32 years old, which is around the age when players start to decline, but not Glover. He has said he would like an extension in Detroit and stay and finish out his career, and Bob Quinn will do just that. Glover won’t be getting paid as a top safety in the league, or have a long contract that will end when he hits the age of 40, but Glover will get that extension.

At 31 years old, Glover Quin says he has three to four more high-level years left in him, and that is what Detroit should aim for in contract talks. Quin signed a five-year deal to come to Detroit, but he won’t see the same deal again. Detroit should offer Quin a three or four-year deal, depending on how they think he can be at age 36.

Quin has been a fantastic safety for the Lions since joining the team in 2013, and for $23.5 million, he was somewhat underpaid and a steal for the Lions. Now Glover Quin isn’t looking to cash out on the Lions and be one of the highest-paid safeties in the NFL, he just wants to finish out his career in Detroit and Bob Quinn should get that done for him. The talks have already started, so that is a good sign for things to come.

Overall I believe Quin can contribute for the next three to four years as well. He has started 116 straight games, barely missing any time during his playing career. Glvoer Quin isn’t a hard hitter, so he isn’t dealing out many blows, which helps his body just as much as the people he is hitting. Quin could play possibly longer after the age of 36, but for the Lions sake, they should play it safe and sign Glover Quin to a three or four-year deal and keep him while he can still play at a high level.

The Glover Quin situation is certainly a difficult one to balance. On one hand he has been the Lions defensive leader for several years now and a key piece of their defensive backfield for almost half a decade. On the other though, the eight year pro is now 31 years old and reaching the twilight of his career.

Statistically he may not pop off the page, finishing with middling statistics over the last two seasons, however he is extremely important as a last line of defense and for positioning the team. With the Lions inept play against the pass still obvious, the loss of a player of that caliber with nobody waiting in the wings could potentially be disastrous. Furthermore while entering your 30’s would be a near death sentence for several positions, safeties, especially umbrella free safeties, tend to have a slightly longer life expectancy.

Many top safeties have played well into their 30’s and been highly productive, the most recent example of this being Charles Woodson. As for current active examples, Mike Adams had pro bowl seasons at ages 33 and 34, while Eric Weddle is still regarded as one of the elite safeties in the league at 32 and is signed through to 2019.

While Glover may not quite be at elite status, he’s still a top ten free safety in the NFL and in solid shape, playing every single snap for the Lions defense last year. In fact he’s only missed 136 defensive snaps in the last four years, putting him on the field for an insane 96.64% of the Lion’s defensive plays. Detroit should without hesitation extend Quin on a two to three year deal so long as he comes at a reasonable price tag.

Glover Quin is among the most important players for the Detroit Lions on defense. While his production has certainly fallen off over the past couple of years, his value to the team has not. He is a strong leader and veteran presence on the defense. That is a phrase that is often over used in football. Anyone who is nearing the end of their usefulness is called a “veteran leader”. In Glover’ Quin’s case, it is actully true.

Quin has been with the team for a number of years and understands the system as well as anyone on the defense and has an strong understanding of NFL offenses. That knowledge and experience is something that the Detroit Lions are missing on defense.

A large contributing factor to his lack of statistical production was the fact that the rest of the defense was underwhelming. Quin had to make up for a lackluster linebacker group and shift to a lot more underneath coverages to compensate.

The Lions’ pass rush didn’t do him any favors either. It is widely known that the Lions struggled in getting to the quarterback last year. That put a lot more pressure on the secondary and really stunted Quin’s numbers. Glover Quin does his best work when he gets to sit back and capitalize on forced throws and poor passes. Last year’s defensive makeup made this difficult.

Quin definitely deserves the extension. He is almost certainly going to get an extension of some sort. Most of the backlash that I have seen on this topic has been a misinterpretation of the situation. This isn’t going to be a seven-year, massive extension that the Lions are going to break the bank for.

I had a conversation with Erik Schlitt about it here. This is likely a three to four year deal with some flexibility on the Lions’ end for the latter part of the deal. The team will likely be able to cut ties if his play falls off severely, and he probably won’t be making top-end money. For me, this isn’t even debatable. Sign the man.

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