Rams may face Mission Impossible in extending both Byron Young and Kobie Turner

The Los Angeles Rams draft class was conspicuously devoid of defensive talent. Going quarterback, tight end, offensive line, and wide receiver with their first four picks, they took a defensive tackle with their fifth and final pick in the seventh round.

In a post-Aaron Donald world, the Rams have still been able to lean on their defensive front thanks to some shrewd drafting by general manager Les Snead. Finding Byron Young and Kobie Turner in the third round of the 2023 draft and following that up with Jared Verse in the first and Braden Fiske in the second round of the 2024 draft has placed the Rams' front as one of the more enviable units in the NFL.

Here in 2026, those players are starting to eye their next big paydays. Young and Turner are both entering contract years and are extension eligible. And the Rams just spent a draft telling us something. When you skip the position group entirely until your last pick, you are either confident in the players already in the room, planning to pay them, or both.

The math says it's the latter. After a deep dive into the Rams' cash situation through 2028, the price tags on Young and Turner are climbing into territory most teams can't absorb. The latest wave of free agency keeps shoving the markets at both positions higher, and Athletes First represents both players, which means they aren't accepting anything other than top dollar.

This is the same agency that got Dak Prescott $60 million per year. They helped Jordan Love hit $55 million per annum on the back of barely a season of starts. They represent Micah Parsons, Brian Burns, Penei Sewell, and Kyle Hamilton. This is a team that gets guys paid.

This is normally where I'd say there's no path forward for both pass rushers to get the bag. But there is one. Picture the Avengers scene where Dr. Strange has his finger up for Tony Stark. We are talking about a very narrow needle to thread.

What if Puka Nacua Doesn't Get Extended This Year?

That's the alternate reality where the Rams have enough cash in 2026 to get both Turner - at an estimated $30 million per year - and Young - at $28.5 million across the finish line. It would cost a bit more than the $361.5 million in cash spending that I proposed in the deep dive. But it's still a possibility.

Nacua is working through some off-the-field issues and still has one more year left on his rookie deal. And at his level of play, the Rams could probably tag him up to three years in a row and still get a fair deal on him. That's up to four years of team control without ever sitting down at a negotiating window.

With this security that their star receiver isn't going anywhere they could take the extra cash and make a solid up-front investment in their young defensive linemen.

The structure I proposed in the deep dive front-loads both deals in 2026 with heavy guaranteed cash, then drops the 2027 hits to make more cash available to the team the following year.

Kobie Turner projected extension - four years, $120 million

This four-year extension would put him under contract for a total of five years at $123.9 million. His cash and cap outlays would be:

Turner gets $30 million in cash in 2026, with most of it as a signing bonus that prorates across the deal. The cap hit comes in at just $7.15 million in Year 0 (2026), which is the whole point. 2027 stays light at $13.2 million in cash before the structure ramps in 2028.

Byron Young projected extension - four years, $114 million

Same approach for Young. A four-year extension would keep him in town a total of five years at $119.8 million. $27.5 million in 2026 cash with a $6.68 million cap hit, then a $16 million cash number in 2027 that keeps the budget breathing.

What 2027 looks like with both locked in

Combined, the two deals send $57.5 million in cash out the door in 2026 and just $29.2 million in 2027. That's the entire point of the structure. Combined with Stafford's expected raise, it puts the team a bit over the $59.5 million in available cash for these moves, but it's still defensible (and doable) to ownership.

The Rams' existing 2027 cash commitments sit around $210 million. Add Young and Turner's $29.2 million combined, and you're at roughly $239 million. At the 20%-above-cap budget I proposed, the Rams have $390 million to work with in 2027. That leaves $151 million in cash for everything else.

That's enough to land Nacua's 2027 cash on a market-resetting extension. It's enough to extend Verse the moment he becomes eligible. It's enough to keep some powder dry for whatever else the offseason throws at them (Do I hear yet another Stafford extension?). The 2026 cash spike is the price of admission. The 2027 relief is the whole point.

What about a hometown discount?

What if Nacua does get extended? Could he take a hometown discount? What if all three decided to make the cash and cap mechanics work? It's wishful thinking, but exceedingly unlikely. All three players are represented by Athletes First.

A1 is one of, if not the best, player representation groups in the business. Their client list is a who's who of top-paid players in the league. Micah Parsons and Jordan Love are but a couple of their clients. When a player signs with A1, they are signaling to their team that they are looking to maximize their value, not diminish it.

So, whether Nacua or getting the pass rush squared away is the priority, the Rams know they are about to pay top-dollar for their awesome 2023 draft.

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