What if the LA Rams were to trade WR Robert Woods

The nearer a new NFL Free Agency market draws to opening, the more NFL rumors boil out to the public. Comes news today that the LA Rams have been receiving interest from other NFL teams about the possibility of acquiring WR Robert woods, as first reported by  Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer in this week’s edition of Monday Morning Quarterback (MMQB) (Subscription may be required)

His article focused upon NFL teams trying desperately to get under the anticipated 2021 NFL salary cap, and of course, one of the teams deeply embedded in the murky waters of salary cap deficits is none other than the LA Rams. And why not? The Rams seem to enjoy playing in the forbidden zone of spending too much. As a result, they are now the subject of several NFL Rumors. The latest of course involves the LA Rams getting perennial offers for WR Robert Woods.

The great rule of thumb to any NFL rumor is that it has to have enough embedded logic within it not to be discarded as frivolous. To that objective, Albert Breer has his Ph.D. in NFL Rumors. How so? He has packaged an unthinkable NFL rumor in such a way that I find myself unable to punch a single hole in it. What makes matters worse, I’m now stuck in the vortex of actually walking through the ‘What if?’ scenario that I wanted to avoid in the first place.

Of course, the Rams are getting telephone calls about Woods. The Rams are probably getting phone calls about the availability of Aron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, too. And that’s OK. But here is the kicker.  If the Rams do indeed entertain trade offers for Robert Woods, then the team would save nearly $12 million in salary cap expense. That is per Over The Cap.com on Monday, March 8, 2021.

There is no waiting for that savings. No ‘Post June 1st’ conditions. The Rams get instant savings of $11.9 Million to pull down the mountain of more than $35 million in over-spending for 2021.  This is not the time to argue the right or wrongs of how the Rams got there in the first place. It’s simply the time to recognize a simple truth: If the Rams need salary cap relief,  a big chunk of it is now ringing the phones off the hook.