2 successful draft classes lets Rams be aggressive in free agency

Back-to-back successful draft classes allows Rams to maintain aggressive approach in free agency for second-straight year

Stu Jackson

https://www.therams.com/news/back-to-back-successful-draft-classes-allows-rams-to-maintain-aggressive-approach-in-free-agency-for-second-straight-year

PALM BEACH, Fla. – Finalists for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2023 who set league and franchise rookie records. The NFL Defensive of the Year in 2024. A young, ascending pass rush.

Yes, the Rams’ post-2022 “remodel” to get to a healthier salary cap has played a part in having the means to be as aggressive as they’ve been in free agency the past two years. But they aren’t in position to do so without the success of the each of the previous two draft classes.

While two of the three weight-bearing walls from the previous era are gone, the 2023 and 2024 draft classes have brought foundational pillars to support the remaining weight-bearing wall in quarterback Matthew Stafford.

“You had Aaron Donald, he leaves. You had Cooper (Kupp), he leaves. But I think to those weight bearing walls, instead of having three huge pillars, we now have six or seven, probably, that are holding up the house,” Rams president Kevin Demoff said at the NFL Annual Meeting earlier this week. “And then you can go and add Davante Adams and some of those (types of players), but they don’t have to be a weight-bearing wall, right? They’re really additive to the group that you’ve already built overall. But I think the continuing to invest in our young players, that group, and growing them together, and watching them grow together and have that stability has been huge. But I think there’s an element of, you know, as you start to do it, those young players always had to be supplemented by those weight-bearing walls, until they could truly hold up the house on their own. That group can now hold up the house on their own.”

NFL teams typically make aggressive moves when a quarterback is on a rookie contract and therefore cost-controlled during that time. It’s slightly different for the Rams: They are invested in the starting quarterback with 16-year veteran Matthew Stafford; the cost control is at multiple positions on the defensive front, wide receiver and running back, with multiple players still on rookie deals.

Kyren Williams has rushed for more than 1,100 yards and at least 12 touchdowns in each of the last two seasons and is a candidate for a contract extension entering the final year of his rookie contract. Puka Nacua likely was headed for his second-consecutive 1,000-receiving yard season (he finished with 990) had he not been among the resting starters in Week 18. Of the Rams’ 38 sacks last season, 28.5 – or 75% – came from players who were in their first or second seasons: 8.5 from Braden Fiske, 8.0 from Kobie Turner, 7.5 from Byron Young and 4.5 from Jared Verse.

“The neat thing over the last two years is there is this core group and I’m not just going to say the last two years, but let’s call it some years – there is this core group of players that maybe are still on their rookie contracts and in that phase of their career where you can kind of see that bunch leading the Rams into the next iteration, even though we still have some (veteran) players,” general manager Les Snead said in his end-of-season news conference in January.

Last offseason, that core group was supplemented with the re-signing of offensive lineman Kevin Dotson, plus the external signings of cornerback Tre’Davious White, tight end Colby Parkinson, offensive lineman Jonah Jackson and cornerback Darious Williams.

This offseason, that core group was supplemented with the additions of Adams, defensive tackle Poona Ford and offensive lineman Coleman Shelton, after the re-signings of homegrown talent like offensive lineman Alaric Jackson and wide receiver Tutu Atwell.

Demoff said it’s probably similar to where the team was in 2017 and 2018, when it had Donald, running back Todd Gurley and quarterback Jared Goff. That trio was complemented by the growth of players like Kupp and safety John Johnson III, as well as additive pieces like cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters. To extend the weight-bearing walls analogy, those additive pieces weren’t brought to hold the house up – they were simply additive.

“And I think that’s kind of where we are now, but it will always be a balance of, how do you keep drafting and developing those guys and having homegrown players, versus can you be selectively aggressive and adding players from, as Les would say, outside the ecosystem?” Demoff said. “But I think if we’ve done it right, we have the flexibility now to do both. We have the draft picks to continue to grow our players and continue to do that. We have the cap space to extend those players so they can be here seven or eight years. And then we have enough cap space on the side to be able to take a shot on a Davante Adams, to be able to keep a Matthew Stafford, to go add a Poona Ford-type player.”

The difference, Demoff further explained, is that the Rams are bringing in players on couple-year increments. They aren’t bringing in players on, for example, five-year contracts, because that money is being earmarked to some degree for that next group which, due to being on rookie contracts, accounts for a relatively small portion of the salary cap.

It’s a fascinating dynamic to navigate, especially with the year-to-year approach with Stafford, but one the Rams are comfortable with navigating and balancing for the time being – especially since those extension conversations can’t begin until the end of the 2025 season.

“I think that’s the interesting part of where we are as a team. As we sit today, can’t do a Puka deal, you can’t do (a) Kobie Turner deal, you can’t do a Byron Young deal. You’re not allowed to do Verse, Fiske, any of those guys,” said vice president of football and business administration Tony Pastoors, who oversees the team’s salary cap management, referring to the league rule that drafted players can’t be renegotiated or altered in any way until after the last regular-season game of the third contracted year.

“And so we are a really young team, and so you have this opportunity to kind of address some of these things with, say, your quarterback, because you can’t do that, and there is a minimum spend and all those things, and so it all factors in. But I’m sure once this 2025 season ends, we’ll have some people that are hoping for extensions.”