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by misone Jan 16, 2017, 9:00am CST
LA Rams To Let CB Trumaine Johnson, WR Kenny Britt Leave In FA, Sign WR DeSean Jackson?
It’s been reported the Rams are planning on allowing Johnson and Britt walk via free agency. Enter DeSean Jackson…
by misone Jan 16, 2017, 9:00am CSTIt looks like the Los Angeles Rams will be in the market for a new number one at both cornerback and wide reciever.
It has been reported that even before the hiring of new Head Coach Sean McVay, the Rams’ front office already had plans of moving on from WR Kenny Britt — coming off of a two-year contract — and CB Trumaine Johnson, who played the season on the team’s franchise tag.
Heard for a while #Rams will let "Fisher guys" (WR Kenny Britt & CB Trumaine Johnson) hit free agency. Curious if McVay/Phillips change that
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) January 14, 2017
As the source called the players, “Fisher guys” to be exact, it looks like the firing of former HC Jeff Fisher was never the only intention in regards to exterminating the ties to the embattled long time NFL coach.
There has been no word on whether or not this is something that McVay himself is interested in doing.
Britt was easily the most productive and exciting player on the Rams offense. And a lot can be said for his production in a season that saw him catching passes from the worst quarterback play of any team in the league (for at least half of the season). However, Britt made the most of his opportunities as he graded out as the eighth best receiver in the NFL this year at catching difficult, tight coverage, and/or contested passes.
Johnson on the other hand saw his performance drop this season after grading out as a top 20 corner by PFF in 2015, and had never allowed more than two touchdown passes in any given season. This season Johnson saw a career low one interception, and was frequently beat by receivers in what can only be described as a down year.
The free agent market is expected to be relatively dry for top corners. However, the 2016 NFL draft is expected to be heavy at the corner position.
Receiver is expected to be a little different come draft time. The cream of the crop will be about four or five receivers that are likely to go in the first round. It’s very possible one can slip to the early second where the Rams pick. Receiver is a realatively loaded position in this years draft, but after those top four of five players the talent drops significantly. There are a lot of players who’s ceilings appear to be as a quality number two guys, but not a number one. Now, as usual there will be players to step into the light and shock the world as a steal, but they are harder to come by. The depth of quality two receivers makes this a strong draft — however — it’s not on par with the 2011, 2013, or 2014 NFL drafts.
As for free agency, if Britt is allowed to walk, a name to keep an eye out for would be WR DeSean Jackson.
Jackson is entering free agency and it’s not expected that he will be brought back as Washington has invested heavily in the receiver position in recent years, and have some young and talented players ready to jump onto the scene.
Bringing in Jackson makes a lot of sense for multiple reasons. The first being he’s from LA. It’s his hometown, and he’slikely going to sign his last decent contract, and what better place to do that than your own backyard. Another reason would be Sean McVay. Jackson played three seasons with McVay as the OC and had moderate success catching 142 passes for 2702 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also averaged a robust, 19.4 yards per reception (all impressive stats for a three year stretch, especially when considering he missed nine games). And Jackson likes McVay and has a lot of respect for him.
Jackson is one of — if not the absolute — the most feared deep threats in the NFL, and could really help the run game by loosening up the defenders teams are willing to put in the box.
The Rams are expected to have between $40-45 million in cap space, and they don’t have a first round pick. It’s highly unlikely that if they let both players walk they’ll be able to find impactful replacements through just the draft. While it’s still extremely early in the offseason — as the Rams are still just trying to fill out their coaching staff — this is certainly a situation to keep an eye on.
The team already has major holes to fill at OT, OG, SS, RB depth, LB and DL depth. Adding too many more gaping holes could be the makings of a long season, for a first year head coach…
Agamemnon
There were 12 players on Injured Reserve last year. That is a minimum of almost $6 million. Last year the cost of doing business was almost $12 million, counting everything. This year the rookie pool for drafting will be less, but an estimate of ~$10 million per year of doing business is reasonable. The Rams $44 million is really closer to $34 million. imo
AgamemnonI don’t know why the Rams would let TruJo go without a serious attempt at re-signing him. Big, physical corners who can cover aren’t easy to find. He had a down year but so did the entire team. I chalk that up to the move and injuries as he was banged up quite a bit.
I don’t know much about the writer and we need CBs anyway. But, you know, the new guys will always bring in some of their old guys. It is good to have variety in posts, so I thought would add it here.
Remember, Williams went to Cleveland. They have $108 million in Cap Space. He can out bid the Rams for any player he likes, if Cleveland wants. The Rams[$44 million] are in the middle of the pack as far as Cap Space.
AgamemnonYea…I don’t know where this “Fisher guys” comes from and if the management is just trying to get rid of anything Fisher related, it’s kinda petty really.
I’m OK with letting Britt walk and adding DJack, but I really want TruJo back…that guy can play and we haven’t had the healthiest of CB’s.
If they Britt walk, do they resign Quick? All of the talk and absolutely nothing on Quick…I would consider him a Fisher guy as well.
Edit to add…maybe Quick is a Snead guy?????
A bit more on the Salary Cap. Donald’s 5th years is 2018. We can franchise him in 2019. Donald isn’t going anywhere before we extend him. Goff’s 5th year is 2020. etc. etc.
Our Salary Cap Model is presently just 10 players for 49.0% of the Salary Cap. It is realistic to go as much as 12 players for 60%, plus or minus, of the Salary Cap. All this means is we have a lot of wiggle room and we can keep whoever we feel are the best players. We can add players. 11% of the salary cap is $18.5 million. This just another way to arrive at the same figure. We can spend about $34 million on FAs, ours or theirs. We can start cutting people, but do we really get more value that way? I think not. imo
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As we add players to our top list, we can drop other players off. If we draft well, they will turn into comp picks. AgamemnonThey definitely need to sign a good FA WR, preferably someone who has worked under McVay. But I’m not sure they should just let Britt go without attempting to sign him. I saw nothing from Cooper and Thomas during the regular season that made me think they can play in this league and Spruce couldn’t stay healthy enough to dress for a single game. His entire rep is based on part of one preseason game.
the problem for me is they already gave tavon 10 mill a year. so do you then sign 2 more starting receivers and keep paying tavon?
i’m not a capologist so maybe it can work.
but i’m spending resources on defense. secondary (re-sign trujo), linebackers, and a nose tackle.
besides i wonder also what mcvay can do with the tight ends. he definitely uses them in his offense. he likes kendricks, and higbee has potential.
I have hope for him too. But he hasn’t established himself yet so we don’t know for sure. Same for Cooper and Thomas. Hopefully McVay can fast-track these guys’ development.
can’t forget about the tight ends either. tight ends were a big part of that offense in washington.
112 receptions out of 407 at washington this year (27.52%).
rams tight ends had 61 receptions out of 312 (19.55%).
i think there’s potential there. we know he’s a big fan of kendicks. and higbee and hemingway are young and athletic. i’d still like them to draft one in the middle rounds this year.
but running backs too.
it’d be nice to see how or if he can get gurley more involved in the passing game.
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