Imagine a secondary that features Jalen Ramsey, John Johnson, Taylor Rapp and Darius Slay. It’d be hard to find a defensive backfield with more talent than that one, which would make the Rams one of the toughest teams to throw the ball against.
Now imagine what the Rams’ salary cap situation would look like, should Slay be acquired in a trade for the Detroit Lions. For a roster that’s already the most top-heavy in the NFL, adding another star like Slay is fun to dream about, but it’s in no way a move the Rams should even consider making.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Slay is being shopped by the Lions as Detroit tries to find a trade partner for the stud cornerback. Slay is entering the final year of his contract and any team trading for him would need to sign him to an extension.
Lions have spoken with multiple teams about a potential trade for Pro Bowl CB Darius Slay, per sources. Any team that trades for Slay would have to compensate Detroit and Slay with a new deal. Other teams believe Slay will be traded this off-season, but Lions adamant on value.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 17, 2020
For a 29-year-old cornerback who’s currently making $12 million per year, you can bet his next contract would be worth more than that annual salary. He wouldn’t reset the market at his position, but it’s easy to imagine him getting what Trumaine Johnson did from the Jets ($14.5 million per year).
The Rams have yet to pay Ramsey after trading two first-round picks for him last season, so unless he’s somehow included in any trade for Slay, it’s impossible to see Los Angeles paying two premier cornerbacks at least $14 million per year … each.
That’s why it’s difficult to see the Rams as one of the two front-runners to land Slay, as Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network is reporting.
In a hypothetical scenario where the Rams do acquire Slay for, say, a second-round pick, here’s what the top of their salary cap would look like in 2020 – even without giving Ramsey or Slay new contracts.
- Jared Goff: $36 million cap hit
- Aaron Donald: $25 million
- Todd Gurley: $17.25 million
- Brandin Cooks: $16.8 million
- Jalen Ramsey: $13.7 million
- Darius Slay: $13.4 million
That’s $122.15 million in salary cap commitments for next season alone. In a year where the cap is expected to be around $200 million, that’d leave about $78 million for the rest of the roster.
Obviously, that’s not a feasible scenario and the Rams would have to do a significant amount of finagling with the cap – either by restructuring Goff’s contract, trading Cooks, Gurley, Ramsey, Tyler Higbee or Rob Havenstein, or making other cuts, including Clay Matthews.
And, this isn’t even taking into account the Rams’ pending free agents, which include Cory Littleton, Dante Fowler Jr., Andrew Whitworth and Michael Brockers. Last we checked, Slay doesn’t play any of those positions, which means the Rams would need to find replacements at all of those spots because there’d be no way to re-sign them after acquiring Slay.
The other reason Los Angeles should stay far away from a deal for Slay is the compensation needed to acquire him. The Rams are already without first-round picks in 2020 and 2021. Detroit isn’t going to dump Slay for a Day 3 pick, and it’d likely take at least a second-rounder or more to acquire him – especially after reading Schefter’s tweet saying “Lions adamant on value.”
Sure, the Rams would probably be OK with giving up a third-round pick for Slay, but that’d leave them with only the 52nd overall pick in the top 100. For a team with huge holes on the offensive line and at linebacker, giving up a third-rounder would make it incredibly difficult to fill their biggest needs.
It’s not as if cornerback is near the top of the Rams’ priorities, either. They’ll be perfectly fine with Ramsey, Troy Hill, Nickell Robey-Coleman and David Long as their top four, as well as Darious Williams in the fifth spot.
Adding Slay would be completely unnecessary and put the team’s future further at risk – more so than it already is with all of these massive contracts already on the books. This team needs to find value players, not costly ones.
The salary cap can always be manipulated, but that doesn’t mean the Rams should try to squeeze Slay into the picture.