Rams cap

Jourdan Rodrigue, from https://theathletic.com/5378295/2024/04/02/los-angeles-rams-contracts-free-agency/?source=emp_shared_article

Pastoors speaks with select reporters once a year at the NFL’s annual meetings, last week in Orlando, Fla., and was able to provide insight into a few interesting Rams contract items — and clarity in other areas.

Cost-control

The Rams, as previously reported, decided to invest the bulk of their 2024 resources into their offensive line. Because they were actively studying the guard market in the chance they couldn’t extend right guard Kevin Dotson, they identified left guard Jonah Jackson as a possible replacement. They also believed they’d try to re-sign center Coleman Shelton.

Yet the three-year, $48 million deal with Dotson got done before the legal tampering period. Jackson was not re-signed by Detroit. The Rams then pivoted to also signing Jackson instead of waiting on Shelton to discern his market and decided to move second-year lineman Steve Avila to center (where he played at a high level at TCU). Jackson’s deal is three years and $51 million. They have also offered a second-round tender to left tackle Alaric Jackson (one year, $4.89 million) and have right tackle Rob Havenstein under contract for the next two years at about $25 million. Tight end Colby Parkinson could also count as an investment at this position because of the blocking work he has done and will do in Los Angeles — another three-year deal, this for $22.5 million contract.

The general duration of the contracts aligns with the amount of time left on Avila’s cost-controlled rookie deal, as well as that of receiver Puka Nacua and the final two years of lead running back Kyren Williams’ contract. Receiver and running back are enhanced by strong offensive line play. Obviously, players who continue to play well could be eligible for early extensions — especially at positions such as offensive line and receiver.

Why so many three-year deals? When the rookie class comes in after the draft, their contracts will be the first on this roster to span past 2026.

“I think there’s a couple of things there. I think you’ve seen that trend in the league, players want shorter deals,” Pastoors said. “It allows them to get back to free agency. As the cap continues to grow, they’re not stuck in a deal they are unhappy with because the numbers are antiquated. … I think the other part of it is probably just the evolution of Sean (McVay) and Les (Snead), and wanting to be able to make moves and make adjustments and not have huge ramifications. We can be coached, we can grow and evolve, too.”

Some of the multiyear deals have an interesting structure, too — particularly at positions where the Rams have not historically invested (or at an age of a player).

For example, cornerback Darious Williams signed a three-year, $22.5 million deal in free agency to rejoin the Rams. He is 31. At 32, the second year of Williams’ deal, the Rams would take just a $2 million dead money hit in 2025 if he were released and a $1.1 million dead money hit in 2026 — with about $14 million in cap savings. Yet $15 million is guaranteed on the contract — with $7 million guaranteed at signing as a bonus. This essentially makes the contract friendly for a player in the latter years of his career while also incentivizing him if he plays well in 2024 (but allowing the team to get out of the deal without too much pain if not).

Safety Kam Curl is the first at his position to sign a multiyear deal with the Rams since 2019 (Eric Weddle). The team has generally opted to draft safeties in later rounds, but McVay said that once they realized Curl was still in free agency, they didn’t want to miss out.

Of Curl’s two-year, $9 million contract, $6 million is guaranteed, but the dead money hit in 2025 in the off chance of a release is just $2 million because $4 million is guaranteed to Curl in 2024 at age 25.

“I know Kam (also) has a way in which he himself can void (the final year),” Pastoors said. “We thought, with both of those guys — given where the markets were, given the caliber of players we were able to get — it made sense to do multiyear and to get them at a number that really made sense for the team this year and next year.”

Aaron Donald’s cap numbers

Before Donald announced his retirement last month, the Rams restructured his contract to convert $13 million of it to a signing bonus.

“This year, right after he retired, I think (a report) came out that we had redone it. That was always part of the plan,” Pastoors said. “He had an option in there, that option has since been declined … the option was not exercised. That took a fake year of 2026 and prorated it back into 2024.”

Donald’s new cap number for 2024 is about $24 million, and it is $9 million in 2025.

Pastoors added that the Rams have control over Donald’s contractual rights even after he files retirement papers, which means he can’t suddenly decide to come back and play for another team (not that he would — remember, Donald is the one who wanted the no-trade clause in his original contract).

When negotiating Donald’s previous extension in early 2022, Pastoors said Donald “looked me in the face and said, ‘I’m playing two years.’” The Rams added the third year, 2024, “just in case” — in doing the deal, the team believed he would play it through and the option enclosed inside it would give Donald and the team time to make the decision. As McVay noted, though, it became pretty clear (while unspoken through much of the year) that 2023 would be Donald’s last.

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Quick notes

• Stafford and receiver Cooper Kupp will play through 2024 on their current numbers (Kupp’s is $29.7 million). After signing this year’s draft class, Pastoors said the Rams expect to be “pretty tight” up against the salary cap (between $4 million and $8 million). That doesn’t mean they will stay there, but if they opt to restructure their top two contracts, they would have to move that money elsewhere, including into the future against the contracts of players who will be 36 and 31 when the season begins.

There is also some benefit in not pulling those levers unless the right opportunity emerges. The Rams always factor the trade deadline into their financial calendar.

“We haven’t had to convert anyone,” Pastoors said, “so I think that the ‘trade deadline question’ … we’ll always be able to do things (at the deadline) because we have kept things wide-open so far. We haven’t had to convert anybody. We should be just fine when it comes to that.”

Restructures can occur at any point of the year.

• While backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s cap number for 2024 is listed at just over $3 million, his two-game suspension has to be additionally factored into the sum, per Pastoors. That’s a long, long way from the “up to” numbers initially reported for the one-year deal (always be wary of those). Garoppolo can, however, hit “up to” $12 million in incentives if Stafford gets hurt, Garoppolo then starts most of the year and carries the Rams to the NFC title game. Simple!

zn wrote:

White’s cap hit for this season will be just $3.485M. His base salary is just $1.5 million.

This leaves the Rams 11,546,513 (11.5 M) under cap, with the draft expected to be about 6.4 M.

They are currently 12.4 M under the 2025 cap.

InvaderRam wrote:

i do remember there being talk of restructuring his. but i haven’t heard of anyone else.

They did restructure NB. They moved 10 M of his 2024 hit into a void year in 2025 by making it a prorated bonus. Initially he counted 20 M against the 2024 cap, now it’s 11.6 M. That’s the figures at over.the.cap.com. I don’t get the math on them but that’s okay. Essentially they gained abou 8 M in 2024 cap space by putting money into 2025, when he is no longer under contract. So they take a 10 M dead money cap hit on him next year.