Who will the LA Rams tender qualifying offers to in 2020?

The LA Rams have remained silent over tender offers so far. Who will the Rams extend tender and minimal qualifying offers to in 2020?

The LA Rams are rapidly approaching March 10, 2020, 1:00 pm PT deadline to extend either a franchise or transition tag to outgoing free agents.  Based on weekly LA Rams podcast released on March 4, 2020, team general manager Les Snead doesn’t anticipate the Rams using either, despite the risk of losing outgoing players to the higher bidding.

The next important date, and one which carries an even greater impact to the team, is the March 18, 2020, 1:00 pm PT deadline where teams must exercise all options in player contracts, submit all qualifying tender offers to Restricted Free Agents (RFAs), submit all minimum qualifying salary offers to Exclusive Restricted Free Agents, and be under the 2020 Salary Cap with the Top 51 paid players.

The second date is more important to the LA Rams future thanks to the Rams’ limited salary cap space.  The Rams have three ERFAs in OLB Josh Carraway, TE Johnny Mundt, and C Coleman Shelton, one team option in Nickell Robey-Coleman, and three RFAs in DE Morgan Fox, DB Donte Deayon, and WR Jojo Natson.

As of today, March 7, 2020, the LA Rams have estimated free salary cap dollars for 2020 at $23.2 million.  The highest amount to an ERFA (a player with three accrued seasons) is $735,000. So applying the rules, the Rams must offer Mundt $735,000 (3 qualifying seasons), Shelton $585,000 (1 qualifying season), and Carraway $510,000 (0 qualifying seasons).  So far that’s $1.825 million.

Nickell Robey-Coleman‘s team option of $4.5 million is already factored into the salary cap stated above. But the RFA offers to Fox, Deayon, and Natson, even at the original round designation, costs the Rams a cool $2.144 million per offer.  Assuming the Rams elect to make two such offers, the Team is committing another $4.288, with a grand total of over $6.1 million of additional salary commitments.

That allows the team just $17 million to sign any veteran free agent(s), draft selections, and undrafted rookie free agents. If the team holds $7 million for drafted and UDFA rookies for 2020, the Rams will likely have enough money, $10 million, to sign 2-3 modest free-agent contracts in 2020.