Restructured contracts help LA Rams today, but will pay later

The LA Rams have not cut or traded any players yet (as far as we can tell), so as we have expected all along, the only route remaining was to restructure, or outright rework, contracts of existing players. No, it’s not some magic trick like a pocket full of magic beans, but rather it pushes salary dollars that were hitting the 2021 salary cap into the 2022 or beyond salary cap.

And that is both the boon and the bane.

Per NFL Network’s Omar Ruiz, ‘about five or six Rams’have restructured their contracts

We mentioned during Free Agency Frenzy @nflnetwork a handful of #LARams have restructured their contracts to allow some salary cap space flexibility, @RapSheet providing some of the names👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://t.co/qd0q1UeuZQ
— Omar Ruiz (@OmarDRuiz) March 16, 2021

Per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, the names of those players agreeing to help out the Rams so far are All-Pro defensive back Jalen Ramsey, wide receiver Robert Woods, and will soon be joined by wide receiver Cooper Kupp and All-Pro defensive lineman Aaron Donald.

The #Rams are working to get under the cap, restructuring CB Jalen Ramsey’s contract (creating about $12M of space), WR Robert Woods ($8M), and Cooper Kupp's and Aaron Donald’s conversions should be done soon to get them under the threshold.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 16, 2021

So far newly arrived quarterback Matthew Stafford is not in the discussion because by rights he is not an official member of the LA Rams team until the start of the league’s 2021 NFL season at 1:00 pm PT on March 17, 2021. So while the Rams may have an agreement in place to restructure or rework Stafford’s deal, those details will likely not be forthcoming. Another name can be added to the list of cooperative players. It seems that left tackle Andrew Whitworth is also a veteran who has agreed to restructure his deal.

LT Andrew Whitworth is among Rams veterans to restructure their contracts for salary cap purposes as L.A. works to get compliant, per source.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) March 16, 2021

So far, we know that the Rams $33 million was bumped up to $38 million by Darious Williams Tender offer, and then by whatever portion of OLB Leonard Floyd’s will hit the 2021 salary cap.

The critical path for the next 24 hours is getting the LA Rams under that $182.5 million threshold, but it won’t end there. The Rams will need money to sign rookies from the 2021 NFL Draft, but any signing bonus money used to entice undrafted free agents to sign with the team after the draft of any substance.

Details about how much savings for this year are not yet available, and unless players agree to forego previously agreed to money due them, all this activity does is kick the can down the road. If the Rams shave $50 million from the 2021 salary cap, that will likely be added to 2022, 2023, and into the future. Nothing comes easy or free if it’s about the LA Rams and the NFL salary cap.

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