Signings, Cuts, Trades

[rossihunter2]

I don’t wanna hear nothing about our cap woes

it looks like he's got a 23.3m dead cap hit in a void year in 2025 lol
they've got nearly the same amount of space that we have - they're able to make these moves by pushing the cap debt into the future - if we look at 2023 for instance, we are slated to have about 50m more space than them (obviously that's with no lamar on the roster so that factors in) as well as pre-cutdowns which will change things also

 

[UPennChem]

I don’t wanna hear nothing about our cap woes

It doesn't make sense right? Why is there ability to sign people infinite. Clearly this has to catch up with them soon right?

 

[rmcjacket23]

It doesn't make sense right? Why is there ability to sign people infinite. Clearly this has to catch up with them soon right?

It does. It'll just be at a point where all their veteran talent is gone, they don't have a QB, and they'll be a bad team for a few years. Then nobody will notice.

 

[RavensMania]

I don’t wanna hear nothing about our cap woes

they did it with voidable years contracts in 2025 and 2026. I don't want to see the Ravens use voidable years in any of their contracts. Below is the structure of the deal.

The result is a 3 year, $95M contract through the 2024 season, with guarantee mechanisms in 2023, early March vesting on the 2024 compensation, and two void years for cap purposes.

Aaron Donald’s new deal comes with $46.5M fully guaranteed at signing, by way of a $25M signing bonus, a $1.5M 2022 base salary, a $5M 2022 roster bonus, and a $13.5M 2023 roster bonus.

Another $18.5M fully locks in next March, via a $13.5M 2023 base salary, and a $5M roster bonus for 2024. Should he or the Rams cut loose after 2023, it’ll be a 2 year, $65M contract ($5M of which becomes a parting gift, with no offset language).

If he sticks around for 2024, another $30M becomes fully guaranteed in March of 2024, by way of a $10M base salary, and a $20M option bonus. That means every dollar of this $95M contract is either guaranteed at signing, or comes with some form of early vesting.

Despite tacking on two void years to help the salary cap portion of this contract to spread out, the Rams will only free up $2.75M of cap space per this new pact ($12.5M of bonus proration carried over from the previous contract).

The deal currently carries cap hits of:

2022: $24M
2023: $38M
2024: $31.1M
2025: $23.3M (void year dead cap)
2026: 5m dead cap

 

[BoredMarine13]

It doesn't make sense right? Why is there ability to sign people infinite. Clearly this has to catch up with them soon right?

They know their window with Stafford. Going all in before a few bad years and then they’ll be back again. Clearly it’s worked out pretty well, no reason to think they won’t be favorites in the NFC again

 

[BoredMarine13]

The same folks saying pay Lamar whatever he wants no matter what are the same people mocking the Rams for their all in strategy….. ironic

 

[rmcjacket23]

they did it with voidable years contracts in 2025 and 2026. I don't want to see the Ravens use voidable years in any of their contracts. Below is the structure of the deal.

The result is a 3 year, $95M contract through the 2024 season, with guarantee mechanisms in 2023, early March vesting on the 2024 compensation, and two void years for cap purposes.

Aaron Donald’s new deal comes with $46.5M fully guaranteed at signing, by way of a $25M signing bonus, a $1.5M 2022 base salary, a $5M 2022 roster bonus, and a $13.5M 2023 roster bonus.

Another $18.5M fully locks in next March, via a $13.5M 2023 base salary, and a $5M roster bonus for 2024. Should he or the Rams cut loose after 2023, it’ll be a 2 year, $65M contract ($5M of which becomes a parting gift, with no offset language).

If he sticks around for 2024, another $30M becomes fully guaranteed in March of 2024, by way of a $10M base salary, and a $20M option bonus. That means every dollar of this $95M contract is either guaranteed at signing, or comes with some form of early vesting.

Despite tacking on two void years to help the salary cap portion of this contract to spread out, the Rams will only free up $2.75M of cap space per this new pact ($12.5M of bonus proration carried over from the previous contract).

The deal currently carries cap hits of:

2022: $24M
2023: $38M
2024: $31.1M
2025: $23.3M (void year dead cap)
2026: 5m dead cap

I mean... it looks pretty reasonable to me. He's basically year-to-year anyway at this point, and even with a $23M cap hit in 2025, when he'll almost certainly be retired, that probably won't be a huge number at that point in time.
The Rams are somewhat of an outlier in terms of roster construction, but there's very clearly a way that you can remain competitive with high-end players on your roster that aren't on rookie deals.
The reigning SB champs spent $33.1M in cap space last year (18% of the salary cap) on Jared Goff and Todd Gurley. Neither played a snap for that team last year.
So like suddenly having a $23M dead money cap hit in three years doesn't look so bad. Especially when the cap could be double what it was in 2021.

I'm not a fan of the void years in general, however, I think this FO could do a better job of not living in constant fear of dead money cap space. It's not a death sentence at all to a team's ability to put together a quality product on the field.

 

[rossihunter2]

It doesn't make sense right? Why is there ability to sign people infinite. Clearly this has to catch up with them soon right?

basically when aaron donald decides he is actually going to retire, that's when the bill will come to pay - or maybe a year after that

but they've drafted well in recent years and have invested in some young talent that allows them to maintain this much easier than other "all-in" teams - because while the rams have been giving up 1st and 2nd round picks for proven talents and paying them, they've also not been paying a lot of the NFL middle-class types and have been drafting well to find starters in R3 and later who fit into their team well

all it takes is 1 poor draft and they'll regress back to the pack

 

[UPennChem]

basically when aaron donald decides he is actually going to retire, that's when the bill will come to pay - or maybe a year after that

but they've drafted well in recent years and have invested in some young talent that allows them to maintain this much easier than other "all-in" teams - because while the rams have been giving up 1st and 2nd round picks for proven talents and paying them, they've also not been paying a lot of the NFL middle-class types and have been drafting well to find starters in R3 and later who fit into their team well

all it takes is 1 poor draft and they'll regress back to the pack

Right

 

[rmcjacket23]

basically when aaron donald decides he is actually going to retire, that's when the bill will come to pay - or maybe a year after that

but they've drafted well in recent years and have invested in some young talent that allows them to maintain this much easier than other "all-in" teams - because while the rams have been giving up 1st and 2nd round picks for proven talents and paying them, they've also not been paying a lot of the NFL middle-class types and have been drafting well to find starters in R3 and later who fit into their team well

all it takes is 1 poor draft and they'll regress back to the pack

I mean probably more than 1, but yes, if they start sucking in the draft, they're screwed.

 

[rossihunter2]

I mean probably more than 1, but yes, if they start sucking in the draft, they're screwed.

you're right actually looking at their contracts, they've probably got 2 years grace built in - they've done exceptionally well the last couple of years with mid-late round picks

but it becomes tough to maintain that level of draft success without high picks to invest

i suppose the upshot to their strategy is that around the time they potentially lose some of their key stars (e.g. donald and maybe stafford), they actually have high picks to use at that point to help kickstart a rebuild

but in terms of maintaining their current success, yes they just made 8 picks in the 2022 nfl draft, but the highest of those picks was at 104

 

[allblackraven]

basically when aaron donald decides he is actually going to retire, that's when the bill will come to pay - or maybe a year after that

but they've drafted well in recent years and have invested in some young talent that allows them to maintain this much easier than other "all-in" teams - because while the rams have been giving up 1st and 2nd round picks for proven talents and paying them, they've also not been paying a lot of the NFL middle-class types and have been drafting well to find starters in R3 and later who fit into their team well

all it takes is 1 poor draft and they'll regress back to the pack

Regression will start earlier than that. I don't think Donald will be worth the amount they guarantee him after this season.

 

[RavensMania]

Rams cut Travin Howard in a cost cutting move, saving 2.54m. We should make a waiver claim for him.

 

[rmcjacket23]

Regression will start earlier than that. I don't think Donald will be worth the amount they guarantee him after this season.

Well keep in mind that "regression" for a player like Aaron Donald means he'll be a well-above average DT, instead of a dominant, game-wrecking DT.
Calais Campbell is still a very solid player at 35/36. Donald is five years younger than that, and a MUCH better player.

 

[Davesta]

So he pretty much calling my Stevie B a brokeass? I will not stand for this!

 

[BoredMarine13]

So he pretty much calling my Stevie B a brokeass? I will not stand for this!

The bummer of being a small market team and a less than desirable location

 

[Michael M.]

The bummer of being a small market team and a less than desirable location

And its that very reason why I think Lamar Jackson will join them one day

 

[Ellicottraven]

And its that very reason why I think Lamar Jackson will join them one day

If Lamar ever leaves Baltimore it'll be to become QB for the Rams, not Dolphins as some forum mates have surmised. That is the only team that can pull off a heist for Lamar in 3 yrs if Lamar doesn't sign a long term extension with the Ravens. I personally think he'll retire a Raven, but I fear the Rams may poach him away from us. There is the LA market, LeBron, his brand marketing and the rest that may entice Lamar, just in time for them to move on from Stafford. I hope not though.

 

[rossihunter2]

So he pretty much calling my Stevie B a brokeass? I will not stand for this!

the bit that's being left out there is that at some point, you're going to have created so much dead space in the future that you will have to be cash-under-cap because it has to eventually almost match-up

 

[Michael M.]

If Lamar ever leaves Baltimore it'll be to become QB for the Rams, not Dolphins as some forum mates have surmised. That is the only team that can pull off a heist for Lamar in 3 yrs if Lamar doesn't sign a long term extension with the Ravens. I personally think he'll retire a Raven, but I fear the Rams may poach him away from us. There is the LA market, LeBron, his brand marketing and the rest that may entice Lamar, just in time for them to move on from Stafford. I hope not though.

I totally agree. He hangs with Lebron now and I think he would go to LA because its a bigger market