4 free agents Rams would ruin the offseason by signing in 2025

In any new NFL season, the Los Angeles Rams have restocked the roster to the specifications of GM Les Snead and HC Sean McVay. On some occasions, the plans for what the team intends to do are easily detected with the first or second personnel action. On other occasions, the plans are a bit more complex, and it's not until the 90th player is signed to the Rams roster that it all makes complete sense. I believe restocking the roster in 2025 will be more like the second version.

The Rams have certainly been quite active already, and the 2025 NFL Free Agency market has yet to open. That has not stopped the team from trading IOL Jonah Jackson, putting WR Cooper Kupp on the trading block, restructuring QB Matthew Stafford's contract, or resigning LT Alaric Jackson, C Dylan McMahon, or WR Tutu Atwell.

And it 'feels' as though there are many more moves left on the chessboard by Grand Master Les Snead to make. But there are moves to avoid as well. After all, it doesn't take much water to make a high-performance engine sputter. So the front office, in an effort to improve the team, cannot slip and put the Rams roster in retrograde.

I'm not accusing players in this list of being a locker room 'cancer,' by any means. But there is a delicate metamorphosis of converting young players who know very little about lift in the NFL into consistently high quality performers and perhaps even elite players. That process seldom carries talented rookies to their optimal level. One of the reasons why is that they pick up less than optimal habits from veteran examples.

Peer pressure may not have much influence on persons who live in remote locations in the world. But in any professional sport, the pay-it-forward mindset is vital. Rams fans know how the influence of meticulous perfectionists like All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, All-Pro defensive back Jalen Ramsey, and All-Pro wide receiver Cooper Kupp set the bar very high for young players who learned from them.

But the opposite can be true too. Players who hit one solid season, and then cash in on that production, are not necessarily bringing that same mindset and work ethic to the table. And a team that has built a roster around passion for the game has to be wary of newcomers whose greatest motivation is the 'bag of cash,' that they hope to gain in their next contract.

So who should the Rams avoid signing in the 2025 NFL Free Agency market? Here are four I would steer clear of:

(4) - DT Javon Hargrave

Any move that strengthens the Rams roster and weakens the San Francisco 49ers roster is a good thing, right? Well, only if it truly strengthens the Rams roster at a value-added price. And with his return from a rather serious tricep injury in 2024, I'm not convince that DT Javon Hargrave is a player who will bring his A-Game to the Rams if signed. After all, we learned from the addition of former All-Pro cornerback Tre'Davious White that sometimes coming back from an injury is a much longer process than fans might hope.

It's not that I believe that Hargrave will be an immediate and utter bust. I simply love the direction taken by the team in stocking the defensive front with passionate fun-loving wrecking balls who have one another's backs, and I don't see Hargrave as an immediate fit. His next contract projection puts him in the $21+ million APY category from overthecap.com, and there is simply too much risk to put that much money in the pocket of one player.

It's not that I am resolutely opposed to adding a veteran defensive lineman to the team. I'm simply opposed to adding Hargrave. He has played four seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, three seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, and now just two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. Each time, his APY increases dramatically. And yet with each new contract, his duration with that team shrinks. Right now, the 49ers plan to release Javon Hargrave, just two seasons into his four-year contract:

The question is, why?

Yes., we can rationalize that the 49ers are cutting costs to create sufficient space to extend QB Brock Purdy. But no team is foolish enough to release players who simply are playing well enough to deserve higher paying contracts. And therein lies the rub.

Hargrave may bring a lot to his next team. But I, for one, do not want the Rams to risk derailing the chemistry and progress of the young defensive front to experiment whether he can add something to this group. Not at his estimated $21 million APY contract cost. Truth be told, I would struggle at half that cost.

(3) - TE Gerald Everett

Distance makes the heart grow fonder. While that is not always the case, it certainly seems to be what is prompting some Rams fans to mention former Rams tight end Gerald Everett as an option for the team's tight end room in 2025. And in one word, let me respond to those speculations of returning him to this offense: No. Even if I ignore the way he made it a point to toss shade at the Rams after signing with the Seattle Seahawks, Everett simply had his best years in the Rams offense. He played relatively well with the Los Angeles Chargers. But he was horrible for the Chicago Bears.

I really don't have a problem with trying to get a veteran for cheap and watching the way the Rams football team restores the passion for playing the game to the core of their being. But there is a limit as to what type of player those efforts of reclamation work on.

Yes, Everett used to play for the Rams. But the Rams offense has undergone sweeping changes, with one of the most obvious and dramatic changes being the fact that Jared Goff is no longer the Rams quarterback. Yes, Gerald Everett last played for the Los Angeles Rams while Goff was still under center. And if that does not concern you, how about this?

The Rams have TEs Tyler Higbee, Davis Allen, and Colby Parkinson under contract for 2025 right now. I defy the argument that Gerald Everett and his 36 receiving yards in 2024 to be better than any of those players. And with the Rams almost certainly targeting a rookie tight end successor for Tyler Higbee, there is simply no role for a non-blocking tight end in the Rams offense.

If the Rams are willing to move on from veteran WR Cooper Kupp, they are not entertaining ideas of re-signing a guy who doesn't upgrade the roster. Neither should you.

More Rams offseason news:

(2) - WR Davante Adams

There is a lot of buzz around recently released wide receiver Davante Adams, who split his time between the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets in 2024. Coming off a contract that averaged $28 million per year, Adams is arguably one of the biggest names to hit the 2025 NFL Free Agency market after his release from the New York Jets. So clearly, the Rams front office should make a hard push to sign him to a contract, no matter what the cost, right? Not so fast, my friend.

The New York Jets released him, but only after no team was willing to trade a bag of chips and a six pack of diet cola for him. So why didn't any NFL team jump on the chance to trade for Adams?

It all comes down to return on investment. I explored that angle when citing how the Rams extension of Tutu Atwell means three players won't be back in 2025.

Revising the same comparison to include Davante Adams cost from 2024, here's what I found:

• Cooper Kupp's catches in 2022-2024 earned him over $200k per catch
  Tutu Atwell's catches in 2022-2024 earned him under $36.9k per catch, but Davante Adams earned him more than a whopping $329k per catch
• Cooper Kupp earned $17.8k for each receiving yard from 2022-2024 while Tutu Atwell earned just $2.7k for each receiving yard over the same time frame. Meanwhile, Davante Adams earned himself more than the outlandish sum of $26K for each receiving yard.
• Cooper Kupp earned nearly $2.4 million for each touchdown scored from 2022-2024, while Tutu Atwell earned just $900k for each touchdown scored over the same timespan. Davante Adams, on the other hand, cost $4 million for each touchdown scored in 2024.

As fans, we have been skewed by our fervor for Fantasy Football, and the rules that allow us to compare players solely on statistics alone has created a blind spot in our objective assessment of NFL players. As we have shown above, Tutu Atwell's historic cost for his production is significantly lower than that of either Cooper Kupp or Davante Adams. As fans, we tend to gloss over the salary considerations of adding players to the roster.

Perhaps now is as good of a time as any to put them back on the radar screen.

(1) - QB Sam Darnold

I'm not sure if anyone was more impressed with the outstanding performance of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold than me. His resurrection in the Vikings offense in 2024 rivals that of ham-and-egger quarterback Geno Smith in the Seattle Seahawks offense in 2022. In many ways, I think his 2024 production outperformed Geno Smith. But is he a one-hit wonder?

The jury is still out for me. And it's that 'is he, or isn't he?' concerns that has me giving the thumbs down on signing him to the Rams roster for 2025. After all, the Rams coaching staff has proven repeatedly to have the uncanny ability to restore the polished luster to any tarnished quarterback. So why waste that Midas touch of turning lead into gold with a quarterback who already has a golden shine?

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that Darnold has managed to find success after struggling to find anything remotely positive while playing for the New York Jets, the Carolina Panthers, and even a short stint with the San Francisco 49ers. Clearly he was a custom-fit for the Kevin O'Connell offense designed to optimize the Vikings ability to move the football and score points. But success so far has only come at a 25 percent clip for Darnold. Those odds simply do nothing to convince me that he can be the successor to Matthew Stafford in the Rams offense. And for a nearly 28-year-old veteran quarterback, I don't believe that he should be forced to sit on the bench any long either.

Darnold would have been an adequate 'Plan B,' option for the Rams if they were unable to come to an agreement with starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. But with Stafford excited to return for another season with the Rams, the team has no room for a backup quarterback who wants and deserves a chance to start now.

In another year, if Darnold has the same level of success, Darnold could be a high-quality bridge for the Rams until a young quarterback has earned the right to start. But even that is unfair to Darnold. He earned the right to remain an NFL starting quarterback with his 2024 performance. And the Rams timetable, now backing Stafford through 2025, simply does now align with Darnold's timetable. It likely never will.

As always, thanks for reading.

Here are some other Rams articles you may enjoy: