How Clay Matthews signing impacts Rams’ salary cap

How Clay Matthews signing impacts Rams' salary cap

The details are finally in. There have been several conflicting reports about what the Los Angeles Rams gave Clay Matthews on his new contract, but now we have the real numbers and can start to breakdown the impact.

The Rams haven’t been the biggest spenders in free agency, but they’ve been able to make some very nice additions to the defense. First they signed Eric Weddle to start at safety opposite John Johnson III, and then they added Matthews. General manager Les Snead managed to add two starters on defense without breaking the bank for either.

According to Overthecap.com, Matthews will count for just $3.5 million against the cap in 2019. That’ll leave the Rams with $5.3 million in cap space moving forward.

That might not sound like too much, but considering how Snead has been operating, it’s more than you might think. That’s just below what Weddle’s cap charge will be for 2019, and a lot higher than Matthews’.

The Rams will have to allot some of that money to the rookies they take in next month’s draft, but they can also still clear up some space elsewhere. Last March, Snead traded away Robert Quinn and Alec Ogletree to free up a bunch of cap space, and you never know what he’s got up his sleeve.

Overall, it’s a very reasonable deal for Matthews. He can play both inside and outside, and coach Sean McVay is already raving about his versatility. Assuming Matthews plays to the level he’s capable of, he’ll be well-worth the $3.5 million cap charge in 2019. And if he doesn’t, the Rams can get out of the deal fairly easily after this season.

The Rams don’t have a ton of cap space at the moment, but it’s not too much of a concern. There’s not really any big acquisitions they still need to make, and Snead can always shuffle some things around if something pops up.

from Les Snead prefers modified ‘best player available’ strategy in draft

(from March 8th)

Les Snead prefers modified 'best player available' strategy in draft

The Los Angeles Rams haven’t had a first-round pick in either of the last two drafts because of trades for Jared Goff and Brandin Cooks. As of now, they hold the 31st overall selection in Round 1, but it’s far from a certainty that they’ll be the team making that pick on April 25.

Les Snead has a knack for trading picks and with the Rams’ selection being at the end of the first round, moving back a few picks to the second is definitely an option – especially if one of Los Angeles’ primary targets doesn’t fall to No. 31.

Snead recently discussed how the Rams plan to approach the draft this year and indicated that trading back is definitely an option, as it always is. They’ll also try to take the best player available “at a specific amount of positions.”

“I think the way we’ll do it is, we’ll have a priority of position we should target. Now, where we’re picking at 31 … it’s a lot harder to gauge who is going to be there,” Snead said, via the team’s official site. “Nowadays, it’s like, OK, you can probably guess the top 10 to 15 [draft picks], but after that, the order gets a little funky and harder to figure out. So I think what we’ve got to do is be disciplined and go, let’s call it, within a specific amount of positions if at that pick, or let’s say we want to trade back into the second round or something and acquire more picks — you then take who you subjectively think is the best player available at those positions. Because if you go into it with one position, that’s usually where you reach. Or maybe you get lucky and the position you really need is sitting there, but you always want to guard against, if you call it, the cognitive bias that comes into play.”

Right now, it’s difficult to predict exactly what positions the Rams will be targeting in the draft. Until free agency happens and players are signed, we won’t fully know where the Rams’ biggest holes will be.

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Mock draft roundup: Who the experts have the Rams taking

Mock draft roundup: Who the experts have the Rams taking

Unlike last year, the Los Angeles Rams will be on the clock in Round 1 of the NFL draft. The Rams didn’t have a pick until the third round last year, but will be picking 31st overall this time around. As such, who they’re going to take is receiving a lot more attention.

There are several positions of need, and Les Snead has some decisions to make. The Rams are missing their second-round pick because of the Marcus Peters trade, and Snead could trade back from 31 to acquire multiple new picks. Experts are beginning to crank out their mock drafts, and we’ve compiled some of the notable ones from the past week below:

Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN.com
Round 1, pick 31: OL Garrett Bradbury, NC State

You’ll need an ESPN+ subscription to read Kiper’s breakdown, but the longtime ESPN draft analyst has the Rams taking Bradbury, a center from NC State. The Rams didn’t exercise their 2019 option on center John Sullivan, so an interior offensive line pick makes sense.

Bradbury was a 13-game starter at left guard in 2016, and then was NC State’s starter at center the past two seasons. He was a first-team All-ACC selection last year. You can read NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein’s profile of him here.

Luke Easterling, The Draft Wire
Round 2, pick 37: DL Dexter Lawrence, Clemson

Round 3, pick 94: ILB Joe Giles-Harris, Duke

Round 3, pick 95: EDGE Joe Jackson, Miami

Round 3, pick 99: OT Tytus Howard, Alabama State

Easterling is a proponent of the trade-back idea. He has the Rams giving up their first-round pick for an early second and adding an additional third-round pick in the process. If nothing else, it would be fun to see the Rams pick three times in the span of six picks.

Lawrence would be a nice replacement for Ndamukong Suh on the interior of the Rams’ defensive line. The Rams could use inside linebacking help after the decision to move on from Mark Barron, so Giles-Harris makes some sense. Even though the Rams just added Clay Matthews, Matthews is 32 and you can never have too much edge help, so a player like Jackson would be a nice addition.

Howard is an intriguing small-school prospect who has a lot of upside. He’d be a somewhat risky proposition, but at 99 you don’t have too much to lose. Depending on how the Rams feel about Joseph Noteboom’s development internally, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see them take another player who could potentially take over for Andrew Whitworth when Whitworth finally hangs them up.

Lance Zierlein, NFL.com
Round 1, pick 31: DT Christian Wilkins, Clemson

A lot of people have the Rams taking Clemson defensive linemen. If they don’t take Lawrence, Wilkins is definitely a possible candidate. Zierlein writes that “Wilkins is an upfield defensive tackle with the ability to get into gaps and bring the ruckus, just like defensive coordinator Wade Phillips likes.”

You can view Zierlein’s full profile of Wilkins with write-ups and athletic testing data here. Wilkins had 14 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks last season as part of Clemson’s dominant defensive front.

Trevor Sikkema, The Draft Network
Round 1, pick 31: EDGE Clelin Ferrell, Clemson

In case you weren’t sick of Clemson defensive players yet, Sikkema has the Rams taking Ferrell at 31. He writes that “Ferrell has a chance to go in the Top 20, but late first round is also possible — he will be a first round pick. Rams need edge rush badly and Ferrell has been one of the most consistent edge players in college football on one of the best defenses for years.”

Ferrell had 20 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks last season. Dante Fowler Jr. is only on a one-year deal and it remains to be seen what level Matthews will play at, so taking an edge rusher early could be a smart move. The Rams learned first-hand what it was like last year to have little edge-rushing depth, and it isn’t pretty.

Matt Miller, Bleacher Report
Round 1, pick 31: DL Christian Wilkins, Clemson

Round 3, pick 94: S Mike Edwards, Kentucky

Round 3, pick 99: OT David Edwards, Wisconsin

Sensing a trend yet? Miller also has the Rams going Wilkins with their first pick. He writes in part:

“Barring a return of Ndamukong Suh, the Rams could look to fill his role in the defense by selecting a hard-nosed, high-motor tackle from Clemson at No. 31 overall. Wilkins is a solid athlete who’s best trait is his relentless style of play. Coaches rave about his leadership and work ethic, which is contagious. Playing next to Aaron Donald, Wilkins could be a big problem for centers and guards in the NFL.”

After that, Miller has the Rams going with two Edwards’. The Kentucky safety wasn’t able to participate in combine drills due to an injury suffered during the Senior Bowl. You can read a report from Jon Ledyard of The Draft Network on him here.

The Wisconsin offensive tackle continues the trend of the Rams looking for potential Whitworth replacements in the lower-risk middle rounds. He was a second-team All-Big Ten selection each of the past two seasons. Edwards is a former quarterback and tight end, and you can read Zierlein’s write-up of him here.

Under the new PI review rules, Super Bowl LIII could have been very different

Doug Farrar

Under the new PI review rules, Super Bowl LIII could have been very different

It’s not surprising that after one of the worst non-calls in playoff annals, the NFL voted 31-1 to expand replay to include pass interference, whether it’s called or not called on the field. (The Bengals were the lone “No” vote).

It’s quite possible that the Saints, and not the Rams, would have played the Patriots in last season’s Super Bowl had Bill Vinovich’s crew called one of the most obvious and missed double penalties in NFL history. Not only did cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman commit pass interference on receiver Tommylee Lewis, he also committed a helmet-to-helmet hit, for which he was later fined over $26,000.

As it turned out, the Rams wound up with a bit of weird officiating karma in the Super Bowl. As Michael Giardi of the NFL Network pointed out, this play in which Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore held the arm of receiver Brandin Cooks should have also been pass interference, but it also wasn’t called.

The competition committee said this play should have been interference and the #Rams would have gotten the ball on the 1-yard line. I pointed this out that night (some of you were irritated). It was subtle but by the letter of the law… pic.twitter.com/TdJi2YBnzw

— Michael Giardi (@MikeGiardi) March 27, 2019

If Rams head coach Sean McVay would have been able to challenge the non-call, and it was proclaimed pass interference, the Rams would have had the ball at the New England one-yard line with a chance to tie the game at 10-10, Just as we will never know what might have happened in the NFC CHampionshup game had the officiating been correct, we’ll never know how that would have changed the outcome of the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever.

The Patriots won, 13-3, but this was the penultimate play of a drive in which McVay’s team had finally started to get things going on offense. Quarterback Jared Goff threw a pass that Cooks should have had the full opportunity to catch, but that didn’t happen. And on the next play, Gilmore intercepted another Goff pass to Cooks, effectively ending the game with 4:24 left in regulation.

The point of this new rule, of course, is not to re-legislate a championship game or a Super Bowl. It is to ensure, as much as possible, that officiating is correct, leading to an honest result to any football game.

It’s too late for the 2018 Saints and Rams, but hopefully, at least one 2019 team will benefit from a rule change that is long, long overdue.

Mike Garafolo@MikeGarafolo
Jeff Lurie confirms what we and others had reported: the #Eagles considered tagging Nick Foles to stop him from going to the #Giants or #Redskins. So one of the reasons they decided not to tag him was it became clear he’d be headed to the #Jaguars.