Despite having a roster littered with big-name players, the Los Angeles Rams are in decent shape when it comes to the salary cap. They’re projected to have about $30 million in cap space when the new league year begins on March 13, which is around the NFL average.
They have their own free agents to take care of, like possibly re-signing Rodger Saffold and Dante Fowler Jr., but there will be plenty of outside options, especially at edge rusher. One player who will be available next month is Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham.
Pro Football Focus released projected landing spots for the top free agents in the NFL, and the Rams were the pick for Graham.
Because of his age, Graham will be a notch below the rest of the top edge-rushers price wise. The Rams are in win-now mode and have no need bigger than edge.
Spotrac’s market value projection for Graham is five years, $79.3 million, which is a huge price tag for a 30-year-old pass rusher. It’s hard to imagine Graham getting that much, especially in such a deep free agency class at edge rusher.
If Graham does indeed get almost $16 million per year like Spotrac projects, he’ll be well out of the Rams’ price range. They’d like to lock up Saffold, could extend restricted free agent Cory Littleton and might even give Jared Goff a huge contract.
Signing Graham for $16 million annually would limit the Rams’ options when it comes to their own free agents and might force them to part ways with someone like Marcus Peters or Aqib Talib.
If Graham could be had for around the same price as Fowler – around $9 million per year – it wouldn’t be a bad investment, but paying a 30-year-old $79 million is crazy.
