LA Rams pose difficult quandary: Is it due to the talent or the scheme?

Fiscal constraints

The LA Rams front office has been a bit loose with the way they are willing to part with tomorrow’s draft picks to acquire today’s talent. But has anyone truly appreciated what this team has been doing in spite of the fact that they carried an enormous burden of Dead Cap money for three years running?

To get a better appreciation of this

Click here for 2019 – Dead cap of $13,604,018
Click here for 2020 – Dead cap of $38,466,148
Click here for 2021 – Dead cap of $48,994,418
Click here for 2022 – Dead cap of $242,002

That totals out to $101, 064,584 over the past three seasons. Now, let’s examine how that hurts the LA Rams team’s chances of success. To do that, we’ll need to check out an Over The Cap article by Jason Fitzgerald entitled: Dead Money and the Playoffs.

Dead cap destroys postseason play. Or does it?

In 2021 alone, the Rams carried over 26 percent of their payroll as Dead Cap. That creates an almost impossible impasse for an NFL team to win. In fact, only the 2016 New Orleans Saints has been the only non-Rams team to have success in the playoffs with a high percentage of salary tied up in Dead Cap funds. The Rams have done so in both 2020 and now 2021.

Even we touched base on the fact that the LA Rams had to overcome that incredibly burdensome Dead Cap space to make the playoffs in 2020. But the salary cap dropped in 2021, and the Dead cap number rose.

Which defense spent the most on its players in 2021? The Kansas City Chiefs shelled out a whopping $96,721,907 for their defense. Now, knowing that, where do you believe that the LA Rams came in?  If you said that the Rams came in 30th-place in spending on their entire defense in 2021, you would be correct. Thanks to the folks at Over The Cap.com, we know that the LA Rams defense only outspent that of the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Texans.

Did the Rams get what they paid for? Do the LA Rams have the 30th ranked defense? Be honest.