Tag: rams salary cap

There’s a financial side to the Rams benching Tre’Davious White, too

Tre’Davious White can double his contract value by playing 60% of the Rams’ snaps but that could be difficult after he was benched in Week 5

Tre’Davious White was one of the Rams’ big-name signings this offseason, bringing in the former All-Pro cornerback on a one-year deal after his departure from the Bills. It was always a move that came with some risk due to his injury history and it has not worked out to this point.

In his first four games with the Rams, he allowed nine catches for 151 yards on 13 targets, giving up four touchdowns and a 147.8 passer rating in coverage. To make it even worse, he’s been flagged four times and had another penalty declined, as well.

Sean McVay and Chris Shula saw enough after last week’s loss to the Bears, deciding to bench the veteran cornerback in Week 5 against the Packers. He was a healthy scratch, something McVay called a “coaching decision” after the game.

It’s largely a performance-based decision, but there’s also a financial element to it. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap pointed out on X, White’s contract is incentive-heavy. He can earn up to $1 million in per-game bonuses and can increase the value of his deal from $4.25 million to $8.5 million if he plays at least 60% of the defensive snaps.

That incentive was likely put in as an injury precaution for the Rams, knowing White has suffered a torn ACL and Achilles in the last few years, but it turns out this is also a safety net for performance. Obviously, White won’t be able to play 60% of the defensive snaps if he’s on the bench and inactive on game days.

The decision to sit White in Week 5 doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to be inactive for the rest of the season, but the Rams were clearly not thrilled with the way he played in the first four games and with Darious Williams back, opportunities could continue to be limited for White.

It was far from perfect from the Rams’ cornerbacks on Sunday but it was unquestionably an upgrade from what they had with White starting on the outside. Williams played well in limited action during his season debut, Witherspoon allowed one long reception and Cobie Durant had his best game yet while playing in the slot more.

Very simply, there may not be room for White to be a full-time player in Los Angeles anymore. That’s bad news for his chances of earning an extra $4.25 million, which could be a factor in this decision by the Rams to make him inactive.

They may not want to play him full-time in what could be a lost season, which would cost them an additional $4.25 million. If he were playing better, sure, there’d be no reason to bench him

John Johnson’s new contract with Rams is once again a bargain

John Johnson III is back with the Rams on another cheap contract that comes with less than $1M guaranteed

John Johnson III returned to the Rams last offseason as a late free-agent signing, arriving in Los Angeles in August. After a successful reunion with the team that drafted him in 2017, the two sides decided to get together again for 2024.

Johnson is back with the Rams on a one-year deal, getting a slight raise over what he made last season, which was the veteran minimum. According to Howard Balzer, Johnson’s new contract is for one year and has a value of $1.38 million with only $750,000 guaranteed.

Johnson’s deal last year was worth $1.08 million, so it’s a $300,000 pay increase for the veteran safety – still a bargain for a starting-caliber safety and someone who knows the Rams’ system very well.

It took Johnson a little while to get up to speed last season, particularly after arriving so late in the summer. He didn’t play more than four defensive snaps in a game until Week 9 when he played 16 snaps and then after that, he was essentially a full-time starter next to Jordan Fuller.

His role this season is still unclear with Kamren Curl, Quentin Lake, Russ Yeast and Kamren Kinchens all competing for snaps at safety, but it’s possible Johnson will get meaningful reps next to Curl.

Whether he starts or not, this is a reasonably cheap contract for Los Angeles at a position that could use some veteran depth.

Rams take on Kevin Dotson’s $2.7 million salary this year

With Kevin Dotson coming aboard, the Rams will take on his $2.7 million salary in 2023 before he hits free agency next year

The Los Angeles Rams struck a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night to improve their offensive line depth, acquiring guard Kevin Dotson for two pick swaps in 2024 and 2025. Dotson is a candidate to start at right guard sometime this season, though it’s unclear if he’ll unseat Tremayne Anchrum Jr. there right away.

The Rams technically didn’t lose any draft picks in this deal, only moving down one round in each of the next two years. But they did take on Dotson’s remaining salary. Dotson has a base salary of $2.74 million in 2023, which will come off the Steelers’ books and go onto the Rams’ salary cap. Pittsburgh only takes on $164,704 million in dead money from his signing bonus.

With a cap number of $2.74 million, Dotson will have the ninth-biggest cap hit on the Rams this year. It’s just below Jordan Fuller’s cap hit of $2.79 million and is higher than players such as Cam Akers ($1.96 million) and Van Jefferson ($1.79 million).

It’s not a huge salary that the Rams must now pay, but it’s also not like they’re getting Dotson at the veteran minimum. It’s a sign of the confidence Los Angeles has in him to be more than just a depth piece this season.

Dotson will become a free agent in 2024, which means the Rams could net a compensatory pick in the 2025 draft if he signs a contract large enough in free agency.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Updated look at Cooper Kupp’s cap hits, Rams salary cap following restructure

The Rams added $10.4 million in cap space by restructuring Cooper Kupp’s contract. Here’s an updated look at their cap situation.

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

With very little cap space to work with, the Los Angeles Rams made a move to free up a bunch of money. They restructured Cooper Kupp’s contract, which opened up $10.44 million in spending money this year.

While it’s possible they’ll use that newfound cap space to sign a veteran free agent, it’s more likely that they’ll simply hold onto it in order to have some roster flexibility when it comes to practice squad promotions and in-season signings.

Restructuring a player’s contract seems like a simple way to create cap space, but it does come with a price. It increases the player’s cap hits in future years, thus reducing the amount of space the team has down the road – all depending on how many years are left on the contract.

For Kupp, he’s signed through 2026, so the Rams were able to prorate the salary they converted into a signing bonus across three future years. According to Over The Cap, the Rams now have $10.75 million in cap space after restructuring Kupp’s contract. That’s still the 12th-lowest in the NFL for this year, however.

As for Kupp’s contract, his cap hit was lowered by $10.44 million in 2023 and increased by $3.48 million in each of the next three years. Not that the Rams plan to move on from him before his contract expires, but doing so just got a little bit more costly if they were to cut or trade Kupp.

Here’s a look at his old and new cap hits, as well as his dead cap charges if he were to be cut, according to Spotrac.

Before After Net change Dead cap
2023 $27.8M $17.36M -$10.44M $64.4M
2024 $26.3M $29.78M +$3.48M $47.04M
2025 $26.3M $29.78M +$3.48M $17.26M
2026 $23.85M $27.33M +$3.48M $7.48M

The Rams were more willing to restructure the contract of a player like Kupp because he’s expected to remain in Los Angeles for the long haul, which may not be the case for someone like Tyler Higbee or even Aaron Donald, who could retire after the 2023 season.

If Kupp plays out the remainder of his contract, there will be no added cost of this restructuring for the Rams.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Rams’ cash spending since 2021: 2 years at the bottom, 1 at the top

No team is spending less than the Rams right now, but no team spent more than them in 2022

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

The Los Angeles Rams might be right up against the salary cap this year, but it’s not because they’re spending a ton of money on their current players. They just have a painful amount of dead money on the books from the veterans they parted with, including Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner and Leonard Floyd.

In terms of cash spending, the Rams rank last in the NFL this year. They’re only spending $181.2 million in 2023, $14.9 million less than any other team in the league. This is actually the second time in the last three years that the Rams have ranked last in cash spending, doing so in 2021, according to the NFLPA’s public salary cap report.

Jack Duffin of 24/7 Sports, the Rams’ positioning in cash spending the last three years have been 32nd, 1st and 32nd. They spent a league-low $137.5 million in 2021, followed by a league-high $282.8 million in 2022.

Cash spending isn’t the same as cap space, which is why there’s such a massive difference between the two for the Rams this year. They only have $1.49 million in cap space right now despite having a league-low 87 players on their roster with just $181.2 million spent.

The Rams will have to make do with what they have on the roster right now before getting more aggressive in 2024 when they’re projected to have more than $53 million in cap space, along with a first-round pick.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

This chart is a great breakdown of the Rams’ top cap hits in the next 5 years

This useful chart makes it easy to see a breakdown of the Rams’ top cap hits in each of the next five years

The Rams’ salary cap will be closely analyzed over the next four or five years as the team attempts to keep its Super Bowl window open with the likes of Matthew Stafford, Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp. Those four players will eat up a sizable portion of the salary cap in the coming years, but thankfully, the cap is expected to continue rising as the NFL generates more revenue.

The Rams did well to limit the cap hits of each player in 2022, but those numbers will grow considerably in 2023 and 2024. This chart from Anthony Reinhard, which uses data from Over The Cap, is an easy-to-digest visual breakdown of the cap, showing how much each player will cost the Rams from now until 2026.

As you can see, Stafford will become quite costly in 2024, while Donald will take up $29.3 million in dead money in 2025 despite not actually being under contract; that’s due to the void year that was tacked onto his deal for cap purposes.

In each of the next four years, the Rams will have five players with cap hits that are among the five highest at their respective positions. That number drops to three in 2026 (Stafford, Kupp and Wagner).

[listicle id=670433]

Rams saved $2.54M by waiving Travin Howard, which they used to sign Cooper Kupp

The Rams saved $2.54M by waiving Travin Howard, using that extra money to pay Cooper Kupp

Somewhat out of the blue, the Los Angeles Rams announced on Wednesday that they waived linebacker Travin Howard. It was a shocking move to cut a player who they just tendered as a restricted free agent this offseason, especially considering he was viewed as the No. 3 linebacker on the depth chart.

But the announcement that followed a few hours later made the decision to waive Howard a little more logical. They signed Cooper Kupp to a three-year extension, using the money saved by waiving Howard to get that deal done.

By cutting Howard, the Rams saved $2.54 million, which was the full amount of his tender. So they didn’t take on any dead money by making this move.

It’s reasonable to think that if the Rams can find a way to clear a little bit more cap space, they could bring Howard back – potentially at a lower number than his $2.54 million cap hit. It’s not that he was making a ton of money, but Howard’s cap hit was more than twice Ernest Jones’ ($1.1 million). It was also higher than Bobby Wagner’s cap hit of $2.5 million – though Wagner is still making more money down the road, of course.

So the book shouldn’t be shut on Howard yet, especially if he’s willing to come back at a cheaper price.

Rams currently projected to be over the salary cap in 2022

Even if the 2022 salary cap comes in at the ceiling of $208.2 million, the Rams will be over the limit.

The salary cap headaches for the Los Angeles Rams aren’t going to magically disappear next year when the salary cap is expected to rise. The team will still have some maneuvering to do in order to put together a top-flight roster once again.

The NFL set the salary cap ceiling for 2022 at $208.2 million. The cap could come in below that number, but as of now, it will not be higher than $208.2 million. That would be an increase of $25.7 million from this year, but the cap still will not have caught up to where it likely would’ve been if not for the setback caused by the pandemic last year.

Things will obviously change between now and next offseason, and each team will carry over some money from this year to next, but the Rams have $211.3 million in cap liabilities among the top 51 contracts in 2022. That means they’re projected to be $3.1 million over the salary cap ceiling, making them just one of three teams to be over the limit; the Cowboys (-$19.8 million) and Packers (-$29.2 million) are the others.

Of the 32 NFL teams, 25 are projected to have at least $10 million in cap space if the ceiling holds and the salary cap is set at $208.2 million. The Colts are projected to have the most space ($83 million), followed by the Steelers ($78.2 million), Jets ($67.1 million) and Dolphins ($66.6 million).

The Rams were forced to restructure a bunch of contracts this offseason just to get under the cap, including those of Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and Andrew Whitworth. In doing so, it pushed money out to later years, thus shrinking the team’s cap space in the future.

There are a number of ways the team can free up cap space next year, such as restructuring or extending Matthew Stafford’s contract, restructuring Leonard Floyd’s deal or trading Rob Havenstein – as a hypothetical, of course.

Then there are the Rams’ future free agents. Next offseason, Darious Williams, Austin Corbett, Joseph Noteboom, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Kenny Young, Matt Gay, Micah Kiser, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and Troy Reeder will all hit the market – though some will be restricted free agents.

The Rams have their work cut out for them, and it’s why making a Super Bowl run this year is so important. With all the expensive contracts they have, they’re fully in win-now mode.

[vertical-gallery id=648484]

Why Jared Goff will cost the Rams $2.5 million more than expected in 2021

Jared Goff will now have a dead cap hit of $24.7 million in 2021 due to an agreement between the Rams and Lions.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqby8n025panb709 player_id=none image=https://theramswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Seeking a change at quarterback, the Los Angeles Rams made the bold decision to trade two first-round picks, a third-round pick and Jared Goff to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford. They also took on $22.2 million in dead money to get rid of Goff, a significant financial hit to their already-tricky salary cap situation.

And in the famous words of pitchmen everywhere: “But wait! There’s more!”

While every other notable trade was announced and made official at 4 p.m. ET (or shortly thereafter) on Wednesday as the new league year began, there wasn’t a peep from the Rams or Lions about the Goff-Stafford swap.

That was intentional, and it put the Rams on the hook for $2.5 million more than initially believed. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap astutely pointed out Thursday, Goff has a $2.5 million roster bonus due today, March 18.

Since the trade wasn’t processed by the league until this morning, Rams will be the ones to pay out that bonus as part of an agreement between the two sides, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported.

So instead of carrying a $22.2 million dead cap hit in 2021 for trading Goff, the Rams will take on $24.7 million. While $2.5 million may not seem like much, the Rams need every dime they can get right now after losing several key free agents, including John Johnson and Morgan Fox.

This extra $2.5 million didn’t come out of nowhere for the teams, of course, but fans and analysts are just now catching wind of the added money landing on the Rams’ salary cap.

Rams hope to get under the cap by restructuring, not releasing players

Les Snead says the team has been working to restructure contracts for a couple of weeks.

The NFL announced on Wednesday that the salary cap for 2021 will be $182.5 million, a $15.7 million decrease from last year’s limit. With the number now set, the Rams finally know how far they have to go to get under the cap by March 17.

Put simply, they have a lot of work to do in the next week, sitting $33 million over the cap at the moment. The Rams haven’t cut anyone yet to clear cap space, nor have they begun restructuring any contracts.

In an ideal world, they’d like to get under the cap without releasing anyone. Les Snead said Wednesday that the team has been working through the restructuring process for the last two or three weeks, and that’s the top priority right now.

“That would be priority No. 1. That’s the process that’s occurring now,” Snead said. “Our vision is to get there without having to (cut players), and if we have to do that, player/agent definitely knows that there’s a timeline and there is a deadline and we have to be under the cap. So if we can’t work something out before then, that’s a possibility. Definitely didn’t want to surprise anyone. This has been an ongoing process for the last two or three weeks, trying to work with everyone to come up with win-win solutions for player and club at this point in time.”

Snead didn’t name names when discussing potential restructure candidates, but Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey are obvious possibilities. According to Over The Cap, the Rams can save $14.2 million and $13.2 million by restructuring the deals of Donald and Ramsey, respectively.

Matthew Stafford, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp are other candidates, but their savings aren’t as large as with Donald and Ramsey – nor is a restructure as safe to do with those players.

If the Rams do have to release players, which seems likely, they aren’t looking at guys on rookie contracts. Those are highly affordable and the savings that comes with cutting any of them is minimal.

So Snead pointed to the veterans with larger contracts – players who are “key figures” on the team – as guys who might have to make sacrifices to help get the team under the cap. That could mean outright pay cuts, or if they can’t come to an agreement, a possible release.

“They haven’t been with players on rookie contracts because deleting those contracts do not help a team in terms of the cap,” Snead said. “We’ve had to knock on the door of a lot of our key figures, key pillars and ask them to in some cases, make sacrifices. In some cases, adjust their contract to help us get under the cap. The vision right now is to get to the finish line without having to release players. We’re well aware that we’ve had to have a call with a subset of our unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents and let them know our intent, whether we were going to be attempting to re-sign them or assuming they’re going to have a better market than what we would be able to pay and allowing them to know their path and how they need to move forward. It’s evolving, it’s changing, it’s unprecedented.”

Snead called the extra $2.5 million in cap space from the original floor of $180 million a “drop in the bucket,” essentially saying it doesn’t matter much to the Rams. But what does help is knowing the exact amount for the salary cap this year, allowing them to have a clear roadmap of where they have to go.

They have a week to get under the cap and moves will have to be made, but the Rams are prepared to make some tough decisions if restructures don’t get them to the finish line.

“The extra $2.5 million doesn’t necessarily move the needle with us, but it is very, very helpful to know it’s not going to be $188 (million), per se,” he said. “To know now, we know what the finish line is. We’ve been running a marathon, didn’t know if we were going to run 25 miles, 24, 26 or 28. At least now we know it’s 26.2, let’s roll.”

[vertical-gallery id=645567]