The Los Angeles Rams have made countless win-now moves since Sean McVay and Les Snead partnered in 2017. This season alone, the Rams acquired Matthew Stafford, Von Miller, and Sony Michel, while also signing Odell Beckham Jr. following his release from the Cleveland Browns.
With all of the moves that Los Angeles has made, it has left itself with a shortage of early-round picks and tough financial decisions. While the Rams have done well — for the most part — in finding late-round talent to offset the lack of early-round picks, they’ll need to discover ways to clear up cap space in the upcoming offseason.
The Rams have the third-fewest cap space rollover ($137,725) in the NFL, only ahead of the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. This shouldn’t come as a surprise due to the number of talented players — and contracts — the Rams have absorbed in recent years.
While this rollover money will help, the Rams are projected to be over the projected cap by $1.7 million in 2022.
NFL teams recently declared unused 2021 cap space rollover amounts (below).
After the playoffs, the NFL will audit incentives, bonuses, etc by team. That figure will be added/subtracted to the number below.
The sum + the 2022 Salary Cap = each team's 2022 adjusted cap number. pic.twitter.com/BMThnJyLpa
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 17, 2022
Clearing cap space has become a common topic around the NFL. The top-tier teams in the league just know how to maneuver the cap space better than others, which can allow them to remain competitive in a sport that can be volatile.
For the Rams, they’ll have decisions to make on pending free agents such as Miller, Beckham, Michel, Darious Williams, Sebastian Joseph-Day, among others. To afford any of these guys, it’s clear that Los Angeles is going to have to make some wiggle room in the financial department one way or another.
One idea that will certainly be discussed is a potential restructure of Stafford’s contract. Stafford has one year left on his current contract after this season and is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2023.
There are other avenues that the Rams could take to create cap space in the upcoming offseason and it will assuredly be interesting to see how Snead and the other members of the front office that are involved in making the decisions end up getting the franchise in a better spot financially.