The start of free agency is right around the corner and the Los Angeles Rams have yet to sign any of their own players who will hit the market next Wednesday. Andrew Whitworth seems like the only one who could ink a deal with the Rams before next week, but the team hasn’t made anything official yet.
That leaves their positions of need wide open. Assuming all of their free agents leave, the Rams could use a left tackle, guard help, outside linebackers, inside linebackers and a defensive end. Maybe even a kicker if Greg Zuerlein signs elsewhere.
But according to Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, though, the Rams’ biggest need isn’t a position at all. It’s patience.
When listing each team’s biggest need ahead of free agency, Farrar listed “about three years of patience” for the Rams.
The NFL’s best personnel people will tell you that championship rosters are often built in the bottom third from a salary and starting sense. But occasionally, a team will go all-in on the present, believing that the top talent it has is enough to get the job done. After losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, Rams head coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead thought the latter way. They signed quarterback Jared Goff to a monster contract extension when Goff’s play hadn’t quite put him in the top spot yet. They traded first-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts for Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
The Rams’ all-in approach nearly worked in 2018 when they went 13-3 and reached the Super Bowl. Then, they continued that plan by trading for Jalen Ramsey and shipping Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib out of town.
It’s hard to argue with a move to acquire an All-Pro corner like Ramsey, but he’s going to command a contract much larger than the three-year, $42 million extension Peters signed with the Ravens.
The Rams’ top-heavy roster is the biggest concern right now, and it’s only going to get worse when Ramsey signs a new deal. That’s why the Rams must exercise patience this offseason and not go spending big to mortgage their future even more.
In 2020, the Rams have four players — Goff, Gurley, Aaron Donald and wide receiver Brandin Cooks — with a combined $95 million in salary cap obligations, and there are no short-term, dead-money savings that comes from releasing any of those players. We haven’t even talked about the contract extension Ramsey will get, which will add a good $15 million per year to the equation. It all gets a little easier in 2021, by which time a new CBA could extend the parameters of the salary cap to help the Rams get out of this mess, but in the short term, those big deals have hamstrung the franchise, and without a really exceptional draft class, there isn’t a clear vision to a competitive future.
With an estimated $20 million in cap space available, the Rams’ options are limited when it comes to signing free agents. They don’t have much flexibility when it comes to freeing up more money, either, with restructuring Jared Goff’s contract being the clearest path to cap space (potentially $16.8 million).
It’s going to be an interesting offseason in Los Angeles, to say the least.
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