Rams deciding not to use franchise tag for 2019 isn’t surprising

Les Snead stating at the combine in Indianapolis that the Los Angeles Rams won’t use the franchise tag for the 2019 shouldn’t come as a surprise at all.

As the Los Angeles Rams continue to prepare to evaluate talent at the combine in Indianapolis, soon the attention will be focused on the upcoming free agency period in March once the new league year gets underway.

Just like previous years, the Rams are expected to be quite busy during free agency period to help improve numerous areas in need of improvement, whether it happens to be the offensive line or simply the defensive side of the football at safety.

Also, the one decision weighing on the minds of Los Angeles fans was whether the team would end up continuing their streak of using the franchise tag after applying it to previous players like Trumaine Johnson and Lamarcus Joyner over the last couple of years.

This time around, the Rams had a few candidates in mind when it comes to potentially using the tag, with Dante Fowler Jr. seeming like the strongest candidate after joining the team in the middle of last season during the final year of his previous contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But to get the topic of conversation out of the way at the combine so there’s no speculation over the next couple of weeks, Les Snead made a statement on Thursday that Los Angeles has no intention of using the franchise tag this year.

Of course, now the question becomes which players will the Rams focus on re-signing in free agency since individuals like Fowler and Joyner will see interest from other teams across the league.

From a financial standpoint though, after looking at all of the deals Los Angeles took care of last offseason, and the recent news surrounding Rodger Saffold most likely being done with the team, the Rams need to be smart about the money they spend over the next couple of weeks.

As great as the franchise tag can be to keep key players on the roster, Los Angeles knows it can also be quite costly, and while Joyner played well for the most part under the tag in 2018, the argument can be made he wasn’t really worth all that money.

All things considered, this decision by the Rams was sort of expected by most fans, so at least now that it’s official, no one has to worry about any last-second surprises.