The Rams could be on the verge of losing a number of starters in free agency this offseason, with the likes of Leonard Floyd, Troy Hill, John Johnson and Austin Blythe set to hit the market. The Rams are in the worst financial situation of any team in the NFL, too, sitting $33 million over the salary cap.
It doesn’t take a cap guru to understand it will be a challenge for the Rams to re-sign many of their own players. Floyd and Johnson will command top dollar, while Hill might be looking for a raise elsewhere.
But GM Les Snead remains cautiously optimistic that the Rams will be able to bring back some players once they get under the cap. He was asked this week about which positions the Rams might try to target, to which he said this.
“I can’t totally do that without maybe giving some teams a leg up in the draft if they wanted to move up and jump us per se at a position, but there’s definitely some players that we feel like we have a shot – once we get under the cap – to re-sign during whatever we call that period when we can negotiate,” he said. “… But we’ll have to adjust based on that because there’s no guarantee that you can re-sign.”
Re-signing Johnson will be a real challenge. The same goes for Floyd. The Rams chose not to use the franchise tag on either player and seem poised to let them test the market. There’s no doubt they’d like to bring back both defenders, but their cap space is limited.
Blythe, Hill and Darious Williams are more realistic targets to re-sign, as is Morgan Fox. Expect the Rams to make a push to re-sign those players – especially considering Williams is a restricted free agent – than Floyd, Johnson, Gerald Everett and Josh Reynolds.