some tweets, 3/6

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
you can say the Rams have a lot of cap room, which they do, but a) so do a LOT of other teams, and b) agents know this and aren’t stupid.

If you’re the Rams, I don’t think you can risk losing Joyner. You’d prefer not to lose Watkins either, but in 2017 the offense was great with Watkins basically as a speedy decoy. Joyner likely would be tougher to replace at this point.

Vincent Bonsignore@DailyNewsVinny
keep in mind #Rams can still negotiate with both players exclusively on long-term deal up until 1 p.m March 14

Alden Gonzalez@Alden_Gonzalez
The Rams have placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on S Lamarcus Joyner, which is worth $11.287M. They would still like to keep WR Sammy Watkins, but he’ll at least see what he can get on the free-agent market next week. Rams can still sign Joyner long term. Good thing about his tag is that the value of it is close to the average annual value of what a long-term deal would look like. A team would now have to outbid the Rams and surrender two first-round picks to get Joyner.

Looking at the list of free agents for a potential Robert Quinn replacement at ROLB, and man, I don’t see many.

Ryan Kartje@Ryan_Kartje
This decision could mean a lot of things. Most likely explanation seems to be that the Rams couldn’t lock up Joyner on a long-term deal like they hoped. Didn’t want to lose him in a market where the cap expanded and huge contracts are likely.

Sammy Watkins, meanwhile, will hit the open market, where he’s likely to command a huge contract. Not sure the Rams would be willing to pay what it would likely cost to retain him. Tough situation, given what they paid for him last fall.

This could put the Rams in the market for a free agent wideout, but all of them will be very expensive.

==

Franchise tag numbers for this season:

Position … Tag Salary
QB … $23,189,000
RB … $11,866,000
WR …$15,982,000
TE … $9,846,000
OL …$14,077,000
DE … $17,143,000
DT … $13,939,000
LB … $14,961,000
CB … $14,975,000
S … $11,287,000
K/P … $4,939,000

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 6, 2018