LA Rams available salary drops over $4.6 M due to PPEs

Despite a handful of highly compensated players, the LA Rams boast a young inexpensive roster for the most part. That is, until the 2019 Proven Performance Escalators (PPE)s kicked in

The LA Rams didn’t enter 2020 with much available salary cap space to work with.  However, after the 2019 Proven Performance Escalators kicked in, that number is now much less.  One of the clauses in the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was the provision which paid young players in the NFL a “bonus” for outplaying their contract.

The escalator bonus is only available for players drafted between rounds three though seven, who have three years of playing time in the NFL.  The player must play at minimum of 35 percent of the available snaps in two of the three previous seasons, or average 35 percent of all plays for three seasons.  Once a player qualifies, their base salary is raised to the lowest restricted free agent tender for the season.  For 2019, that new base salary is $2,144,000.

For the LA Rams, they had a very successful rookie class from the 2017 NFL Draft.  From that class, four such players have qualified for their PPE.  They are WR Cooper Kupp, S John Johnson, WR Josh Reynolds, and OLB Samson Ebukam.

Here’s how much each player’s base salary was set to be in 2020 before earning PPEs:

Kupp: $961,169
Johnson: $775,577
Reynolds: $735,000
Ebukam: $735,000

Here’s how much each player’s base salary looks like after the PPE:

Kupp:        $2,144,000
Johnson:  $2,144,000
Reynolds: $2,144,000
Ebukam:   $2,144,000

Of course, Proven Performance Escalators have done exactly what they were designed to do.  Young players who contributed to the team at a level above their rookie salary have earned more money as a result.  I’m quite certain nobody can begrudge Cooper Kupp from getting a salary bump after leading the team in receiving yards in 2019.  Nor can anyone protest a salary bump to John Johnson, who projects as the likely safety starter for the team this season.

The challenge of absorbing PPEs into the LA Rams already strained salary is simply one more setback to the team’s available cap space when the team projects to lose as many as ten starters.  Some of those players were among the NFL statistical leaders at their position, and will eagerly be scooped up by other NFL teams.  In an offseason when virtually every penny counts, the team has 460,000,000 fewer pennies to work with.

That serves to complicate the Rams off-season even further.