St. Louis Rams: Predicting Free Agency

Free agency is going to be big for the St. Louis Rams in term of filling important needs before the draft in late April. With free agency basically underway, I took over as the general manager of the St. Louis Rams and played out free agency.

Fanspeak allows you to be your team’s general manager and navigate your team through NFL free agency. Fanspeak allows you to cut, renegotiate as well as sign potential free agents by using actually cap data provided by Over The Cap.

Step 1: Select The St. Louis Rams

Step 2: Clear Cap Space

To start, I began with only 3,608,877 in cap space. In order to make moves and sign free agents, I would need to open up a lot of space. To do so, I cut Jake Long and Scott Wells, while restructuring Chris Long.

At 29 years old, I considered cutting William Hayes and Ernie Sims, but they give the Rams good depth on the defensive line, therefore I decided against it.

Starting with only about $3.5-million, I ended up going into the signing period with 16,108,877. This amount should allow me to go after a big name free agent as well as sign a couple mid tier free agents.

Step 3: Re-Sign or Franchise Tag players

The very first thing I did here was re-sign Kenny Britt. As Ive written in the past, it is a must that the Rams re-sign him for the right price. I signed Britt to a 2-year 4,500,000 per year deal with 40% of the contract guaranteed.

The next player I re-signed was Lance Kendricks. Although I believe the Rams allow Kendricks to walk, I believe he is a solid tight end who is good catching the ball, but unlike Jared Cook, is a solid blocker. I signed Kendricks to a three year deal worth 2,500,000 per year with 35% guaranteed.

Lastly, I re-signed Barksdale to a $4,500,000 deal for three years with 40% of the contract guaranteed. The Rams may allow Barksdale to hit the market, but the fact of the matter is, their offensive line is not in good shape, and bringing him back would be huge.

Aside from that, Im allowing Hill and Person to walk and I enter free agency with $7,258,877.

Step 4: Free Agency

The two players that I signed were quarterback Jake Locker and cornerback Carey Williams. Locker I got for 1 year for $1,500,000 per year. Locker will be able to come in and actually compete with Bradford. Williams on the other hand I signed for 4 years worth $5,000,000 per year. The Rams need a veteran presence in the secondary and while Williams struggled in Philadelphia, thats more to do with the system than his talent.

I was unable to sign a big name free agent offensive lineman aside from Barksdale. Clint Boling and Orlando Franklin went for over $7,000,000 a year and Wisniewski and Hudson never hit free agency in this scenario.

While this may seem like a disappointing free agency, the Rams did solve their backup quarterback issue as well as get a solid number two cornerback and give the Rams more depth at the position. If it’s one thing I may have done differently it would be to allow Kendricks to walk, but he is cheap. The only other option for the Rams would be to hope that Harkey can fill that role.

Think you can do any better? Be Les Snead and see what you come up with, it’s absolutely free and gives realistic options of what could happen.

Fanspeak Manage the Cap

Next: St. Louis Rams Free Agency Rumors and News Tracker

More from Ramblin' Fan

Home/Rams News