LA Rams playing musical chairs with projected 2021 NFL free agency

The LA Rams are emerging from the 2020 NFL season.  Of course, that means that they did not reach this year’s Super Bowl, and that means that work now begins for the 2021 NFL season. Of course, much of the early work begins in the personnel department. And one of the first places to look is the list of 2021 expiring contracts for the team. Of course, we are talking about 16 players on the active roster right now. So, what happened to the others? The Rams have already extended or waived many.

Of the 16 players, four fall into the restricted category. Two are exclusive rights free agents: both Coleman Shelton and Travin Howard. The other two are restricted-free agents. They are Darious Williams and Johnny Mundt.  A final unique category is that of veteran Leonard Floyd, whose contract for one season was constructed to allow the Rams to push some of his salary cap hit into 2021.

The team must sort through the remaining ten unrestricted free agents for players that they wish to resign.  Of course, that was a hot topic of discussion between LA Rams COO Kevin Demoff and therams.com report JB Long in a midseason Rams Revealed podcast. I enjoyed that show, as there is always some bit of valuable information that escapes during the dialogue.  In this podcast, the pair discuss the future for one of the NFL’s youngest rosters.

The choices this offseason will not be easy. The Rams project to lose twelve unrestricted free agents: OLB Leonard Floyd, C Austin Blythe, CB Troy Hill, RB Malcolm Brown, TE Gerald Everett, LS Jake McQuaide, EDGE Derek Rivers, DE Morgan Fox, S John Johnson, WR Josh Reynolds, LB Natrez Patrick, and OLB Samson Ebukam.

The LA Rams cannot wade into re-signing outbound players without free cap space, and we have identified a five-step process to free up $80 million from the existing salary commitments.  Once the team has the means to sign free agents, they will have the opportunity to consider existing players or new faces.  We know that the Rams are very intrigued with adding compensatory draft picks. The potential contracts with other NFL teams for Floyd, Hill, Everett, Blythe, Reynolds, Fox, and Johnson could result in the Rams being awarded compensatory picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.