Remember when the Rams came into the offseason with almost no cap space to work with, several marquee players hitting free agency and seemingly no chance of signing any of the top players available? That was the belief of many fans and analysts, pegging the Rams as a team that wouldn’t be able to re-sign its own players due to salary cap restraints.
While that was partially true, the team’s activity in the last two weeks says otherwise. Despite having about $19 million to work with before free agency started, the Rams were able to sign the following group of players in free agency.
- Leonard Floyd: 1 year, $10 million
- Andrew Whitworth: 3 years, $30 million
- Austin Blythe: 1-year deal
- A’Shawn Robinson: 2 years, $17 million
- Michael Brockers: 3 years, $24 million
That’s a lot of money for a team with limited cap space, isn’t it? some might be wondering how exactly the team is going to fit everyone under the cap, find a kicker and still sign its 2020 draft class.
The Rams will make it happen because for the most part, the salary cap is a myth. That’s not to say teams can go out and spend money like they’re the Yankees, but they have far more flexibility with the cap than it seems.
Money can almost always be freed up if necessary, whether it’s with contract restructures, cuts, trades or re-signings. The Rams opened up some space by declining Nickell Robey-Coleman’s option and cutting both Todd Gurley and Clay Matthews, which helped them bring back Brockers.
In hindsight, they could’ve signed Dante Fowler Jr. to a similar deal to the one he got from the Falcons. They easily could’ve re-signed Cory Littleton if they wanted to keep him, too. They had the money to make one of those moves, it just would’ve required them to make the necessary moves to see them through.
After the first two weeks of free agency, the Rams are most likely done pulling out their checkbook, with the exception of signing a kicker and possibly some other depth pieces. But for the most part, the team was able to sign more players than many fans expected them to at the beginning of this all.
The salary cap is a restrictive factor when it comes to signing free agents, but teams almost always have more space than people think – mostly because moves can be made to open up some money.
