3 challenges LA Rams must address this offseason

“All in” fell short for the LA Rams in 2019. Now what are the ramifications as the team enters 2020?

The Los Angeles Rams were not very patient during the 2019 NFL season. As the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks started off by taking a commanding lead of the NFC West, the front office of the Rams went all-in to jumpstart the team’s chances.  They did so by leveraging a series of trades.  Mid-season trades can do one of two things: improve the team dramatically, or complicate the teams future.

The first path is the hoped-for result of changing the team dynamics to the better.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen for the Rams.  In fact, the Rams may be more responsible for helping the Baltimore Ravens to emerge as the 2019 NFL juggernaut going into the playoffs.

The LA Rams wanted to trade for Jacksonville Jaguars star cornerback Jalen Ramsey after their own cornerback Aqib Talib was placed onto injured reserve. But to do so, that meant the team needed to carve out salary cap space.  The team did so by trading cornerback Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens for promising linebacker Kenny Young. That trade returned Young plus a fifth round draft pick in 2020.

The idea was well founded. Create cap space for an alpha cornerback by shedding a sometimes good, sometimes not corner. A risk, but certainly a necessary risk to free up sufficient cap space to afford Ramsey.

Best is yet to come?

The first trade at the cornerback position set up the second move, and perhaps the more important of the two. In the second trade, the Rams traded a first round pick in 2020, and a first and a fourth round pick in 2021 to the Jacksonville Jaguars for cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

At the time, everyone loved the deal, ourselves included. But time has a funny way of placing things into a better focus. By the end of 2019, it is clear that the Baltimore Ravens, with the NFL’s best record, got the immediate jumpstart from the trade. The Rams simply moved players, depleted their NFL draft picks again, and learned that it’s much harder to “win now” when reacting.

And even at ground zero, there were concerns about trading for Ramsey. Was the price tag too high?  Would Ramsey put the team over the hurdle and into the playoffs where anything can happen?

Lesson learned?  Well perhaps. But perhaps not. Right now the team has committed to Ramsey, for better or for worse.  So what does that mean for the Los Angeles Rams going forward?  Well here are three ramifications which jump off the page:

RAM-ification I: Rams are committed to signing Jalen Ramsey to a long term deal

Whether the team can afford to do so or not is no longer the question. By exchanging two consecutive first round picks for Ramsey, the Rams have already committed the purse strings to open far enough to re-sign him for a long term contract.  You do not trade two future first round picks for a partial year rental at any position.

No, you trade for a player you plan to keep on the roster for the forseeable future. But Jalen Ramsey is not just any player. He is one of the best cornerbacks playing in the NFL right now. And that level of play comes at an expensive price.

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The price tag for Ramsey should not be an issue for the Rams. Nor should it be an issue for any NFL team. He is a very talented specialist in the NFL. A shut down corner can neutralize the opposing team’s marquis receivers. That is a huge ace for any defensive coordinator to boast possessing.

The trick is that the Rams have been burning through their salary cap dollars at a rapid pace recently. Salary cap space is a familiar topic to Los Angeles Rams fans.  The team had recently signed QB Jared Goff and DT Aaron Donald to long-term deals.  And the same cap ceiling forced the Rams to let DT Ndamukong Suh walk away in free agency.

Now the Rams must work cap magic to afford Ramsey.  While there is no doubt that happens, that exercise restricts what the team can do for other roster positions.

RAMification II: Rams will need to be savvy in strategizing their salary cap this off-season

I won’t profess to hold expert knowledge of how to strategize an NFL salary cap. Nor will I attempt to detail out the nuances of NFL “cap-ology”. For each contract limiting the team as excessive or placing the payroll over the salary cap limit, there are a myriad of ways to reshuffle the cap hits to stretch out the payroll impacts over multiple years and restore a team’s salary outlays to the safe harbor below the ceiling.

But for each “cap magic”, an NFL team must pay somehow. To lessen this year’s burden, a team must extend that hit into the future.  To fit everyone under the NFL salary cap ceiling, the team must construct of roster of highly paid stars plus undervalued contributors.

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Right now, the Rams are loaded with stars. Stars are great in terms of selling tickets and official NFL merchandise. But when it comes to the NFL salary cap? Those stars simply place too much salary cap in too few hands to build a competitive team for post-season play.

Right now, the players queued up for their big NFL payday contract include cornerback Jalen Ramsey, linebacker Cory Littleton, and defensive end Dante Fowler Jr.. In early January 2020, Over The Cap projects the Rams salary cap space at a mere $25.5 Million.  That seems like a large some of money, until you start adding up the contracts of players unsigned in 2020 to date. Add in offensive line starter Andrew Whitworth, and the cap becomes… problematic.

Of course the Rams will do their magic and free up enough money to fit everyone under the cap. But doing so will cost the team opportunities. And to do so effectively with limited 2020 draft picks, the Rams must focus their draft upon impact players for their greatest area of need: the offensive line.

RAMification III: The 2020 NFL Draft should focus upon offensive line

The 2020 NFL Draft is the one event where the worst teams in the NFL celebrate the greatest hoopla. While that is not a fair description of where the Rams are this year, it does point out one of the flaws of the Rams current situation.

The team is in NFL limbo this year.  While the team was not good enough to earn a spot in post-season, the Rams are one of the best non-playoff teams this year.  That means the team stands in back of a long line of teams drafting before they do.

And now back to that Ramsey trade.  The team gave away the first pick of the 2020 NFL Draft.  What that means for the Los Angeles Rams in the 2020 NFL Draft is not… optimal.  The Rams picks are as follows (before comp picks are added);

1st round – no pick (trade to Jacksonville Jaguars)
2nd round – 20th pick (52 overall)
3rd round – 20th pick (84th overall)
4th round – 20th pick (116th overall)
5th round – no pick (trade to Miami Dolphins)
6th round – 20th pick (180th overall)
7th round – 20th pick (212th overall)

The team has five picks to help the roster, and cannot even begin the selection process until over 50 prospects have already been added to other NFL rosters.  Of course, even hitting with two impact players can be significant for this team.

With too few selections to address multiple needs, the team would be wise to focus on the most critical needs for the team in the 2020 NFL Draft. And per CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso (and many others for that matter, the Rams 2020 top two NFL Draft needs are offensive tackle and interior offensive line. That makes it a simple exercise of focusing the draft upon offensive line prospects.

In the end, the Los Angeles Rams are certainly one of the most intriguing NFL teams to watch in the 2020 off-season. Not just for what the team chooses to do. Perhaps more importantly, for what the team chooses NOT to do.