Los Angeles Rams March salary cap update

It is free agency season, one of the best times of the year.  But do the Los Angeles Rams still have money to be players in the second wave of free agency?  Here is the full report.

As of March 23, the Los Angeles Rams are listed as having approximately $28 Million in cap space. That is currently the ninth most cap space in the league. This was obviously helped by some of the moves the team has made this offseason.  The Rams…

• Chose not to resign WR Sammy Watkins (3 years/$48 million w/ KC) or CB Trumaine Johnson (5 years/$72.5 million w/ NYJ)
• Traded for CB Marcus Peters ($1.7 million cap hit)
• Traded for CB Aqib Talib ($11 million cap hit)
• Traded OLB Robert Quinn (savings of about $10 million)
• Traded MLB Alec Ogletree (savings of about $3.6 million)
• Restructured WR Tavon Austin‘s contract (value TBD)

In addition to these moves, the Rams will need about $7 million to sign their draft picks for this year and another $3 million or so to use as a season opening reserve to account for moves required for injuries.  These are conservative numbers, and I am rounding up.

It should also be noted that it does not include two recent signing that Rams have made, for which the full information has not emerged. The Rams resigned C John Sullivan for a reported 2 years, $15 Million. That sounds a little high to me, but Sullivan did help solidify the Rams offensive line last season.  It is still unclear what the cap hit will be for the first year. I am guessing that a good chunk of that is in a second year team option, with some bonus money guaranteed. As an estimate, lets assume the Rams are responsible for $8M cap hit this year.

Related Story: Where Ndamukong Suh lands says everything about the Rams and Suh

The other player yet to be figured in is LB Ramik Wilson who the Rams signed this week. He make less thank $700 thousand for the Chiefs last year. I would guess he make 1-2 million this year. If we guess at $2 million, that makes the Rams’ situation look like this:

As you can see, that only leaves the Rams with about $8 million left to spend, with maybe a little more based on conservative guesses and some money saved on the WR Austin restructure. Some other things to consider.

• The Los Angeles Rams are still hoping to sign DT Aaron Donald to a long term extension. Would that include bonus money that would factor in this season, or would it be an extension after this coming season, which would not factor in for awhile (I assume some bonus money would be paid right away)? As I wrote about earlier this week, the Rams have reportedly set money aside for Aaron Donald for the future and are prioritizing that contract.
• As has been widely reported, the Rams are talking with DT Ndamukong Suh. $8M is probably not enough to sign him (his cap number was around $19 million last year).   But teams always have some flexibility with moving money around, and might Suh be willing to take a modest one year deal for a chance to play next to Donald?

Stay tuned Rams fans.  More news is bound to be on the way.