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Rams slow start in 2024 catapults them to a higher priority on NFL Waiver Wire

Don't discount this small advantage.

By Bret Stuter

Sep 8, 2022; Inglewood, California, USA; Commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell talks with Rams General Manager Les Snead before the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Sep 8, 2022; Inglewood, California, USA; Commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell talks with Rams General Manager Les Snead before the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The LA Rams certainly have gotten off to a slow start in 2024. While that has created all sorts of fits for Rams GM Les Snead, both a trying to plug all of the roster holes caused by numerous player injuries, and holding the line on the team's salary cap expense, there is a silver lining finally appearing on the horizon for the team.

The NFL has a process of allowing teams to take on the contracts of waived players, essentially allowing for a seamless transfer of a player to a new team under terms of the originally negotiated contract. The process allows players avoid extended periods of down time, essentially acting to place them on a new NFL roster like a temp agency allows workers to plug in and perform for a new company.

It also has the benefit of allowing NFL front offices to bypass the painstaking task of negotiating contracts with a new player, and merely assume the terms of that originally negotiated deal. The process is incorporated under the NFL Waiver Wire policy.

And good news. The LA Rams just moved way up in the priority of claiming players off waivers from other teams. The Rams moved up from 19th to a three-team tie at sixth place:

The NFL Waiver Wire is one of the primary sources of player talent at this time of the year. It's incredibly popular because it allows a new NFL team to assume the contract of an NFL player who has been released by their original team. That allows any of the remaining 31 NFL teams to apply the entire array of data analytics, also known informally as Money Ball from the hit movie of the same name. That cost-effective review of a player gives unparalleled clarity as to whether a player who is waived is worth their existing contract to a new team.

The only challenge to that process is that weaker teams get priority over stronger teams if there are multiple waiver claims submitted for a player. With this latest adjustment, the Rams are no longer considered one of the latter teams to be awarded a player off the waivers list.

Out of 32 possible teams, the Rams have moved into a tie for the sixth-best spot to be awarded a player off waivers. With so many injuries impacting the team already in 2024, that bit of news is welcome indeed.

As always, thanks for reading.

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