LA Rams News: Can team overcome $34 million in dead cap space?

LA Rams News: Is $34 million in dead cap space too much to overcome this year?

The LA Rams have been fighting against the current all offseason.  The team entered this offseason with far too much of the salary cap in the hands of too few players.  The Rams also faced a critical NFL Draft with too few picks. And the team faced losing too many NFL veterans to free agency thanks to expiring contracts but holding too few dollars to resign enough back to the roster.

The jury is still out regarding how well the Rams navigated the numerous challenges faced this off-season.  After all, we have yet to even see the team on the practice field, let alone in a regular-season game. But lo and behold, another speed bump has surfaced for the LA Rams this season. That new development is an old familiar foe but repackaged into a new challenge.

Say hello to another salary cap issue!

Yes, it’s another salary cap development.  But this time, it’s neither an editorial nor an analysis.  It’s about the way the Rams determined to fix the roster for 2020. The team committed a lot of money to QB Jared Goff, RB Todd Gurley, WR Brandin Cooks, and DT Aaron Donald. Of the group, only Donald continued to perform at the level of his compensation.  That left the team in a difficult position with three offensive leaders: let it ride and do nothing, rehabilitate the player with an increase of coaching attention, or cut the losses and move on from the player.

The Rams hired quarterback whisperer Kevin O’Connell to assume the vacant offensive coordinator role with the LA Rams. While his duties for the LA Rams include a number of critical tasks, he is now the primary coach to help develop veteran quarterback Jared Goff to the next tier of NFL quarterbacks. The team also changed running back coaches, opting for Thomas Brown out of South Carolina.  Since Gurley had lobbied successfully to retain running backs coach Skip Peete, that signaled the Rams would be moving on from Gurley, which they did. The team then negotiated a trade to move Cooks to the Houston Texans.

Dread that dead cap

The LA Rams rose from one of the teams with the lowest dead cap number to among the top-5 in a matter of weeks. How did that all happen so quickly?  Well, it came to pass when the LA Rams released highly compensated running back Todd Gurley and traded away highly compensated wide receiver, Brandin Cooks.

Both players had significant signing bonuses, which by rules of the NFL, can be spread over the life of the contract. When they were no longer employed by the LA Rams, the unrecognized monies became dead cap money, and immediately reduced the Rams available spending cash for 2020. That was enough to push the Rams all the way to the third most dead cap money for 2020 in the NFL.

NFL 2020 dead cap ranking

So how do the LA Rams rank in terms of 2020 dead cap money? Well the experts at Spotrac.com have the answer.

And right now, it’s one more hurdle to overcome. That $34 million was not a surprise to the Rams but has certainly been a huge obstacle to the Rams plans to restock the roster. The majority of funds resulted from the trade of Brandin Cooks  ($21.8 million), the release of Todd Gurley ($9.8 million), the release of OLB Clay Matthews ($2 million), and the retirement of S Eric Weddle ($500 thousand).

Rams in better shape than you think

While that dead cap money is never a positive, the LA Rams have been veterans at doing more with less. Keep in mind that the LA Rams have not drafted a first-round player for several years. While that may not seem positive, the guaranteed salary scale from round one to rounds two or later is significant. In short, the Rams have committed fewer dollars to rookies than other teams.  That’s not a problem, as long as the team is able to develop young talent into NFL starters. So far, the team has been able to do exactly that.

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Despite a shortage of liquidity, the LA Rams continue to find ways to pay their bills. While it has slowed down the process of signing contracts with players and has created a host of questions at times over “where is that money coming from?”, progress continues.  If the Rams are able to assemble a competitive roster with that much dead cap holding them back, is there a flurry of NFL free agent signings around the corner?

2021 cap uncertain

In 2021, the Rams three top-paid players all exhibit huge jumps in their cap consumption. That is partially offset by the team’s drop of dead cap space to $8.4 million.  Right now, the Rams are estimated at a $41 million available cap space in 2021 by Spotrac. In the same breath, they estimate the market value of the WR Cooper Kupp, CB Jalen Ramsey just under a $34 million dollar mark.  While the Rams can absorb one such significant signing in 2021,  it remains to be seen just how much the Rams can afford beyond that.

If the optimistic estimates hold true, and the salary cap increases to $240 million for next season, that will add an additional $31 million to the Rams coffers, elevating their free dollars to $72 million for next year. That should allow the Rams to sign both Kupp, Ramsey, and perhaps two additional key starters to the roster.  But if the opposite holds true, and the 2021 salary cap decreases, then it will be a series of tough decisions facing the team. The Rams have been stung by committing too many dollars to too few players. Don’t look for history to repeat itself anytime soon.