LA Rams face NFL Free Agency Market opening on March 15, 2023

The LA Rams are not in the same hard place when it comes to the the NFL Free Agency Market as in past years. Sure, there are several players who fans may wish the team to extend, but after a 5-12 record during the 2022 NFL season, even that level of support for returning players is lukewarm at best. This is a time of year when the LA Rams are very selective, key on a handful of players that the Rams front office and Nerd's Nest believe to be the best value for the price, and roll with that.

The LA Rams are not under the projected 2023 NFL salary cap, just yet. Per Spotrac.com, the team has overshot the mark by over (-$15 million) so far. Of course, the team will get in under the wire as it always does, but it does highlight a few items early in the process. After all, the ultimate goal for the Rams is to restock their 53 man roster and do so within the same salary constraints that all 32 NFL teams are subject to in their roster.

Some LA Rams funds are already spent

For starters, the LA Rams are a jump ahead of many teams. Despite the Spotrac claims of 54 players, the Rams truly only have 52 players. The reason for that is that the team 'spread,' the salary impacts of both DB Troy Hill and DL A'Shawn Robinson, which pushed their dollars into the 2023 NFL season. Neither player impacts 2023 extensively, as the two combined total $3.5 million of total space. But the LA Rams will have other factors at work against them in the 2023 salary cap.

The LA Rams enter the 2023 NFL Draft with 10 picks. Not just any 10 picks, but picks that are projects as the 37th, 70th, 137th, etc. overall picks of the draft. While that means that the Rams could emerge from the draft with multiple rookies who could be starters at the opening kickoff, it also means that the Rams will need to account for extra funding for their rookie class of 2023. The earlier the pick, the more value is assigned to that rookie. While the Rams are not picking in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, they will invest a significant amount of money in their rookie draft class because they are choosing so early and so often in this draft.

Ultimately, the LA Rams free agency strategy may target a number of players, a handful of players, or almost no players. But the team faces the same limits in 2023 as in past seasons. Do the players make sense, and the inevitable trade off over choosing experience or future potential. The LA Rams are still in their window of opportunity for NFL Playoff competition.

Now the question is, how will that affect their approach of restocking their roster?