Does Rams Wagner release mean these 5 unthinkable moves happen?

Yes, the LA Rams struggled in 2022. After a 5-12 season, the team has been forced to take a hard look at itself and ask perhaps the most basic and important question in the team's six year history under head coach Sean Mcvay.

That question is: "What aren't we understanding?"

The NFL is never the same. As soon as the teams stop playing their football games, the team assesses the performance of everyone who contributed to the success or struggle of the team. Then, there is a lot of firing of NFL general managers, head coaches, coordinators, and finally positional coaches. Then and while the firings continue, there is a massive hiring of general managers, head coaches, coordinator, and finally positional coaches, oftentimes from the same people who were fired this year or the previous NFL season.

The LA Rams released Bobby Wagner on February 23, 2023. Per OverTheCap.com, that decision will save the team $5 million this season, at a minimum. But it removes an elite defender from the LA Rams roster, forcing the team to consider adding ILB to their off-season shopping list.

Well, that is before the word got out that the release is not 'official,' until the start of the 2023 NFL season. That is a minor detail, but it means that the savings to the LA Rams 2023 salary cap jumps to $8 million. That's a good start, but the team needs to find a great deal more in the way of salary cap savings to have any chance of being active in the 2023 NFL Free Agency market. Well, let's not jump the gun just yet.

Wagner's release could be the tip of the iceberg

The LA Rams are making Wagner's release a Post June 1 release, which means that he is not a true free agent until the start of the new NFL year. That means he will be subject to all of the rules that other NFL free Agents will be subject to (minus the potential for compensatory picks). That will also mean that Wagner's release will save the Rams $8 million in 2023 salary cap dollars:

But there was a message in the report that ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter included in his report that was a bit perplexing. In the report of Bobby Wagner's release, That message was simply that the Rams needed more cap space, and Wagner wants to win. Isn't that 'wants to win' part of every NFL players' goal? I mean, after you cross the threshold of salary expectations, everyone in the NFL wants to win.

So why is this message so alarming? Or is it just one more example of the NFL standing for Not For Long? Let's talk about that.

We know that the proposed signing by the LA Rams organization was not exactly a rousing standing ovation. The team sat down and talked about whether the defense could make use of Wagner. Ultimately, the coaching staff agreed to sign Wagner, but the terms of the contract were clearly not a 'we're sold on this guy,' multi-year deal. After all, the team had drafted a Bobby Wagner-padawan in Ernest Jones.

So the Rams auditioned Wagner for the first year, and set up the contract to be very severable after that one year was up. The year is up and snip-snip, the contract has been nixed. Thanks to the way the Wagner-Rams relationship ending was reported, you don't really know which side initiated parting of ways. But we have some clues: