How Jalen Ramsey’s deal made it easier for Rams to extend Woods and Kupp

Jalen Ramsey’s extension is what started it all for the Rams this offseason.

It seemed like an impossible task for the Rams to re-sign three of their most important players to long-term extensions this offseason with their cap situation in 2020. The Wednesday before Week 1, the Rams were the only team over the salary cap this year.

So how on earth did they manage to extend Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods all in a matter of two weeks? It probably wasn’t as easy as they made it look, especially with Ramsey’s historic $105 million deal leading the way.

It all comes down to moving money around and figuring out how much money to put where. Because while the salary cap certainly restricts teams from making certain moves, there’s almost always money that can be found and space that can be created.

For starters, the Rams were able to create cap space for 2020 by extending Ramsey. They lowered his cap hit from $13.7 million to only $1.2 million. That created $12.5 million in salary cap space, which was critical because the Rams were right up against the limit this year.

That opened the space needed to re-sign Kupp, who was able to get a raise in 2020 after Ramsey’s deal was made official. Kupp’s cap hit rose from about $2 million to $3.37 million, still a modest number for a receiver who just signed a $47.25 million deal.

By Kupp keeping his cap hit lower in 2020, it kept enough money available for Woods, too. Woods was already under contract this year (and next), with a cap hit of $8.2 million in 2020. According to Ian Rapoport, Woods gets $4.5 million in new money this season and next, which if spread equally between the two would mean his cap hit in 2020 will be about $10.45 million and $12.4 million in 2021.

Then, his financial hit in 2022 – the first “new” year of his contract – will be $13.5 million, which still isn’t a very high number, all things considered.

It was Ramsey’s contract that truly opened the door for the Rams to get all of this done because if not for his extension, the Rams would’ve been right up against the cap heading into the season rather than having $12.5 million.

Don’t get it twisted: Ramsey still got a nice raise and will see the bulk of it in the coming years, but he made it possible for the Rams to re-sign their two talented receivers – and he was thrilled to see it happen.

With Ramsey, Kupp and Woods all extended for the long-term future, it’ll be a challenge for the Rams to bring in outside free agents – at least the high-priced ones – or extend other key players such as John Johnson, Leonard Floyd, Troy Hill and Gerald Everett.

In all likelihood, they’ll walk in free agency next year because the Rams can only afford to hand out so many lucrative contracts before truly hindering their roster-building ability down the line.