The Los Angeles Rams
This is more of a “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Over the past few seasons, one of the common ideas about wise roster construction in the modern NFL was this: Find a rookie quarterback you can build around, load up at other positions while he is cost-controlled under his rookie contract, and make a run.
Les Snead and the Los Angeles Rams did that. They drafted Jared Goff and new offensive-minded head coach Sean McVay was able to get Goff to a reasonable level of production.
They they built around him. They handed running back Todd Gurley a four-year, $57.5 million dollar deal. They acquired wide receiver Brandin Cooks, and signed him to a five-year, $80 million dollar extension. They signed Aaron Donald to a contract extension, they traded for Dante Fowler, Jr., they signed Ndamukong Suh, they traded for Aqib Talib, and they traded for Marcus Peters.
They loaded up around Goff and made a run to the Super Bowl, but they lost to the New England Patriots.
Then, they compounded their list of problems. They gave Goff a massive contract extension, and then they traded for Jalen Ramsey, sending the Jacksonville Jaguars a 2020 first-round pick, a 2021 first-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick.
They missed the playoffs last season.
Now they enter free agency hamstrung by the cap. They were forced to release Gurley rather than face $10.5 million of his contract becoming guaranteed on Thursday afternoon, eating the dead money on the deal. Snead designated Gurley as a post-June 1 release, allowing them to spread the dead cap money over two seasons:
Source: the Rams released RB Todd Gurley with a post-June 1 designation, meaning the team will spread the dead money cap charges over two seasons. The team will also see $5.5M in cap savings that becomes available on June 2.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 19, 2020
Making matters worse? The Goff extension and how that is constructed:
It’s a big day for #Rams QB Jared Goff, who will have his $21M roster bonus paid, while another $43M of future salary & bonus becomes fully guaranteed. He now holds a whopping $94M dead cap figure for 2020. #stabilityhttps://t.co/H8GASPFIMs
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 19, 2020
Snead and the Rams swung for the fences on Goff’s rookie deal. They made a run to a Super Bowl. But they lost, and now they are reaping the whirlwind from those efforts.