There are very few teams in the NFL as good as the Los Angeles Rams when it comes to manipulating the salary cap. It’s how they’ve managed to build a star-studded roster, paying players such as Matthew Stafford, Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald.
On Monday, they rewarded Donald with his second major raise in four years, signing him to a three-year deal worth $95 million – a $40 million bump over the course of the next three years. Donald stands to make $65 million in the next two years alone, plus another $30 million if he decides to return in 2024 for what would be his 11th NFL season.
Incredibly, signing Donald to this new contract actually creates cap space for the Rams in 2022. His cap hit is going from $26.75 million to $24 million on this reworked contract, a savings of $2.75 million. That’s based on the details from ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, which have been used to update Donald’s contract on Over The Cap.
Below are the full details from Over The Cap, including Donald’s cap hits in the next four years.
What makes the savings possible is the fact that the Rams used two void years in 2025 and 2026 to spread out Donald’s cap hits. He’ll have a dead cap hit of $23.3 million in 2023 even though he won’t technically be on the roster.
After costing the Rams just $24 million this year, his cap hit will jump to $38 million in 2023 and then come back down to $31.17 million in the final year (2024).