The coronavirus has made it difficult for NFL teams to look far ahead into the future, given the uncertainty that comes with playing a season during a pandemic. Coaches and players are focused on taking it day by day, passing their COVID-19 tests to hopefully get the season started as planned.
For the Rams, they have to begin looking ahead due to the number of key free agents who will hit the market in 2021. Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp and John Johnson are the big three, but the Rams have yet to make any real progress on their contract situations.
Sean McVay was asked on Sunday if there’s an update on negotiations with those three players, but it seems no progress has been made.
“Nothing on that front. Obviously, those guys are instrumental parts of what we want to do. I’m just making sure I know what the heck I’m doing next after this right now, negotiating through the days,” McVay said. “August 3rd can’t come soon enough, especially through these physicals where we can at least get some sense of normalcy with the schedule. Those guys are important, but there’s no updates on that front.”
It’s not a surprising response from the Rams coach, especially knowing the team’s history of keeping contract talks in-house. Jared Goff’s extension came out of nowhere last year after the team said it was being patient and taking it slow, while Rob Havenstein’s and Tyler Higbee’s deals were also surprises.
The salary cap ramifications of the pandemic and the loss of revenue across the league has thrown an added wrench into the equation because it’s possible the cap could drop to $175 million. If that were to happen, the Rams would only have $8.1 million in cap space next year, which wouldn’t be enough to cover a franchise tag for any of those three players.
It’s likely that L.A. will be patient and wait to see how the cap will be impacted next year before signing Ramsey, Johnson or Kupp to extensions.