With all the stars the Rams have on their team, they’ve had to do some gymnastics to stay under the cap and field the best team possible. It’s a task Les Snead, Sean McVay and the entire front office have completed to near-perfection – just look at the Super Bowl they won as evidence – but it definitely is a challenge year in and year out.
Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Allen Robinson and Bobby Wagner are all under contract for the next three-plus years, and their contracts are not cheap. So the Rams will need to find players who are relatively cheap to complement those stars and fill out the roster, which they’ve done for the last four years or so.
In terms of their future salary cap health, the Rams aren’t in the best shape based on Pro Football Focus’ analysis. According to PFF, the Rams are only 27th in that department.
The study accounts for five categories: active draft capital (current rookie contracts), effective cap space in 2022-2024, total prorated money, top 51 veteran valuation and 2023 free agent projections.
Here’s where the Rams rank in each category.
- Active draft capital: 30th
- 2022-2024 effective cap space: 30th
- Total prorated money: 29th
- Top 51 veteran valuation: 7th
- 2023 UFA valuation: 16th
Even if the Rams aren’t able to sign big-name free agents in the coming years because of the stars they already have, they’ve proved capable of overcoming such difficulties – and they’ve still managed to sign players such as Robinson and Wagner.
So they may not have as much cap space or draft capital as other teams, but the top of their roster is one of the best in the NFL for the next few years.
