LA Rams News: Team faces boom or bust in 2021 NFL Draft

2022 roster needs

Well, the hope is that the 2022 NFL salary cap will come in with a return to a more normal ceiling on or about $200 million.  Unfortunately, the LA Rams have shuffled so many dollars around that the team is on the hook for seven players with contracts valued at $15 million or more. And for now, the team has just 38 players under contract for 2022. Of course, the needs will keep piling up, with the only true infusion of talent coming from the drafts in 2021 and 2022.

Whether or not the Rams can find a solution to losing offensive center Austin Blythe in 2021, they will have an even tougher time finding a way to replace interior offensive lineman Austin Corbett, whose contract expires in 2022. Historically, the LA Rams drafted offensive tackles and then cross-trained them to play at the interior. But Corbett is a bonafide interior offensive lineman, and he plays very well. So interior offensive linemen should be given a good look

IOL? Check. And ILB too

While we are talking about the 2022 free agency list, the LA Rams are facing quite a dilemma. All four inside linebackers who were projected to have roles in 2020 face expired contracts in 2022. That means if the Rams do not find a way to get either ILB Christian Rozeboom or Derrick Moncrief onto the field this year, the team will be in peril for 2022.  While I can’t see that happening, I do believe that the team will draft a linebacker and then sign one-two more this year after the draft

Of course, the team did put up some cash to resign outside linebacker Leonard Floyd. But the outside linebacker position depends almost entirely upon a healthy Leonard Floyd for the entire season and to cobble the equivalent of a starter out of the assembly of a rotation at the other edge position that includes Terrell Lewis, Justin Hollins, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, and Justin Lawler. The Rams will still need a new face to coach-up and to give ironman veteran Leonard Floyd a breather during the game.