LA Rams News: Restructuring Goff and Havenstein to pay FAs

Restructure, as we believed all along

That meant the team needed to free up salary-cap space immediately upon entering 2020, but the team failed to make that a priority. Instead, the team committed to free agents with contract spending that was based upon the NFL’s version of an I.O.U. until the team could sort out the finances. Unfortunately, other NFL teams smelled blood in the water and likely lowballed the team on any potential trades intended to relieve the salary cap situation.

The Rams did end up cutting running back Todd Gurley and trading away WR Brandin Cooks, with both moves clearing 2021 salary cap space but creating huge hits to the 2020 salary cap situation. That meant the team had painted itself into a corner, a corner that only QB Goff could fix for the team.

Of course, the Rams immediately went to work on the largest contract currently on the books, that of franchise quarterback Jared Goff.  While Goff’s contract provided the potential to make as much as $24 million available for 2020, the Rams’ small amount of details are still insufficient to give us enough information to report how much money was redirected from the 2020 salary cap and moved to future years.