This offseason will feel familiar to the last couple of years for the Los Angeles Rams. With five starters set to hit free agency, there’s a good chance the Rams will lose a significant amount of talent on the open market.
It’s similar to when Rodger Saffold, Lamarcus Joyner and Ndamukong Suh left last offseason. And when Sammy Watkins and Trumaine Johnson signed massive contracts elsewhere after the 2017 season.
All of those players except for Suh factored into the compensatory pick formula, though. For Watkins and Johnson, the Rams received extra picks in the third round of the 2019 draft. This year, they’re projected to receive at least one, likely in the fourth round.
This offseason, the Rams are a bit strapped for cash and stand to lose at least a few of their pending free agents – a list that includes Cory Littleton, Dante Fowler, Michael Brockers, Andrew Whitworth and Austin Blythe. But with GM Les Snead being the compensatory pick wizard that he is, the Rams should get a couple of selections in return next year.
He compared this offseason to two years ago when the Rams acquired Watkins for a second-round pick and let him walk, receiving a third-rounder in the following draft.
“The comp formula, we’ve utilized here in a very sound way since Sean has been head coach,” Snead said on the Rams Revealed podcast. “He’s bought into that formula, for sure. I go back to when we traded a second-round pick for Sammy Watkins. Here’s a reason why you may do that for someone who might only be there for a year: If he’s only here for a year, maybe it’s because he’s getting paid more than we can actually pay at that particular moment and that will usually lead to a third-rounder. So you give up a second-rounder for Sammy for a year, you’re able to win the NFC West – didn’t really cash in in the playoffs, but you got a third-rounder for Sammy.
He continued:
“So you would do that similarly this year because we’re in a phase, which is a very good phase in that we’ve been a successful team. … You’ve got good players. Other teams like your good players. Usually, your coaching staff, front office want to keep the good players, we just can’t keep them all. I think all of us know the business of the NFL very well, so you’re going to lose some players.”
One of the important factors in the compensatory pick formula is refraining from signing big-ticket free agents. The Rams have done a good in that department, only signing one qualified free agent (Clay Matthews) last offseason.
Eric Weddle and Suh were both released by their teams, meaning they weren’t included in the equation. Had they been unrestricted free agents, they probably would’ve canceled out compensatory picks for the Rams in the last two years.
“If you can be disciplined in free agency – doesn’t mean you don’t go sign veterans – we could still cash in on the comp formula,” Snead said. “So you’ve got to play the game, the nuances there and then you’re able to get extra draft picks. Third-rounders can lead to John Johnsons and Cooper Kupps and last year, Bobby Evans was a third-rounder and ended up helping us late. I always say, extra third- and fourth-rounders can be very beneficial.”
Snead loves third- and fourth-round picks, and assuming the Rams lose some combination of Fowler, Littleton, Whitworth, Brockers and Blythe, they stand to receive at least a couple of compensatory picks – if they can “be disciplined in free agency,” as Snead said.
[vertical-gallery id=629586]