IRVINE, Calif. -- Back surgery, the resolution to a litany of ailments that hindered the early part of his 2015 season, prompted Los Angeles Rams defensive end Robert Quinn to sit out its final seven games. And because he did, Quinn was forced to watch his teammate, star defensive tackle Aaron Donald, draw an inordinate number of double- and triple-teams from opposing offensive lines, unable to do much of anything about it.
“Shoot,” Quinn recalled thinking, “now he knows what I feel like.”
Quinn -- the 2013 Pro Football Writers Association Defensive Player of the Year after recording an NFC-leading 19 sacks -- used to be the man opposing offensive coordinators feared.