The LA Rams face $182.5 million salary cap, now over by $32+ million

The LA Rams do not make squeaking under the annual salary cap a very simple matter. While some teams seem to have a perennial vault of available cap space, the Rams and general manager Les Snead seems to go in the opposite direction. In fact, the Rams seem to try to overspend each year, ensuring that their roster is packed full with as much talent as possible.

And they’ll cross the logjam over the overstretched salary cap the following year when they get there. Well, they just go there.

While all 32 NFL teams face the same challenge, the news has been filled with those other teams acting to fit their roster under the cap. There have been reports of players and teams agreeing to new terms, shaving costs, and even plenty of players being released as teams chuck ballast in a frantic effort to rise to the surface of this year’s salary cap threshold, and even beyond that mark to allow teams to sign new players too.

When and how will the team cut expenses?

But the big guns of the Rams lay silent. If it’s an attempt to repeat the historic event of ‘Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!’, it’s working. But we now see the whites of the NFL salary cap’s eyes and still nothing.

There must be a plan, of course. Les Snead said so himself at the end of the 2020 NFL Season. A plan to (re-)sign everyone in free agency who is critical to the Rams future. Of course, he added that it would require a few players to give the team a hometown discount. But even discounted players require available cap space.

Here is our ‘plan’. A five-step process to shave a cool $80 million off the payroll. That would put the Rams in nearly $50 million of available cap space, enough to sign the players to fill known roster vulnerabilities. We don’t employ salary cap experts, a.k.a. Capologists. And when we published a similar step-by-step process in 2020, the Rams executed three of the five outlined steps.

Rams must focus on the best bang for their buck

The objective is to field the best possible team, not assemble the best possible group of players. What is the difference? Well, it comes down to this basic fundamental difference. The Rams may look at starting a less talented player at one position if the saving generated from doing so allows them to become significantly better elsewhere.

If the Rams believe that a backup is nearly as productive or capable as a very expensive veteran starter, then it only makes sense for the Rams to pull the trigger on a trade or outright release. Other teams are doing it. The Rams had to have seen 2021 coming. Yes, the team can restructure deals, but in the end, that pushes today’s dollars into tomorrow.

Of course, it’s not all about cutting or shaving. Just as the LA Rams did with All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, the team can unlock a tremendous amount of savings simply by negotiating a new contract with newly arrived quarterback Matthew Stafford. Stafford has already stated a willingness to do so to help out his new team’s salary crunch.

Building a mystery

Well, the Rams have seven days to get there now. All 32 teams must be under the annual salary cap by the start of the new fiscal year. And if the Rams intend to make any qualifying tender offer to retain cornerback Darious Williams, they’d better get crack-a-lackin’ on finding those savings.

Yes, saying goodbye to a Rams player over a salary cap matter is always a problem. But what is often overlooked is the opportunity cost. Is the loss of Darious Williams as a cornerback less valuable to the team than starting Andrew Whitworth over Joseph Noteboom? Are the Rams prepared to play without promising DE Morgan Fox because he offers less value to the team than promoting Bobby Evans or Tremayne Anchrum to start at right tackle over trading away Rob Havenstein?

There was a child’s game in the 1960s that involved sliding 24 tiles in a five-by-five frame to form a picture. But to move one tile to make the picture form, you had to move the other tiles, and ruin their alignment. Fitting a team under a salary cap is like that.  The Rams must extract dollars from one or more positions to infuse some of those savings into other positions. Where will the Rams shave dollars? Well, that’s why we discussed positional spending.

The Rams have yet to show their hand. When they do, I imagine it will both surprise and disappoint. But know this throughout the process, it’s about fielding the best team.  And since the team has done a good job at that, they have earned some leeway here.