Teams are allowed to carry up to 90 players on their offseason rosters before trimming them down to 53 players before the start of the regular season. However, if the season started tomorrow, the Rams wouldn’t even have enough players to fill a 53-man roster.
They’re the only team in the NFL that can say that. According to Over The Cap, the Rams have just 45 players under contract for the 2023 season, by far the fewest in the league. The next-closest teams are the Seahawks and Buccaneers, who have 57 players each. The Commanders lead the league with 75 signed players, so they’re approaching the 90-man limit already without even adding their draft class in.
It’s no wonder the Rams rank so low in spending at four different positions.
At the moment, the Rams have $10.63 million in cap space, but that’s partly because they only have 45 players. Over The Cap has them with just $4.14 million in effective cap space, which is the cap space a team will have after signing at least 51 players and its draft class.
The Rams will eventually get to 53 players, of course, but it’s hard to imagine them reaching the limit of 90 players anytime soon. Even with 11 draft picks, the Rams have a long way to go; that would put them at 56 players, leaving 34 available roster spots.
They’re trying to be financially smart so as not to ruin their cap situation in 2024, but eventually, the Rams will need to sign some players. They can’t go into training camp with only 56 total players, 11 of which would be rookies. They need bodies for practice, and the more players they have on the roster, the more likely they are to uncover a sleeper or hidden gem.
They have the cap space to bring in more players. They just probably won’t be high-priced veterans who take up a lot of cap space this year and next.
