How the Rams can clear $50 million in cap space to spend big in free agency

The Rams can save $50M in cap space, allowing them to spend big in free agency this offseason

The Los Angeles Rams enter an important offseason in which they’ll have the ability to spend big in free agency and add ‘a-list’ caliber players to the roster. With that being said, they have some work to do in order for that to even be an option. As it stands, the Rams have approximately $23.8M in effective cap space. The Rams do have about $27.7M in actual cap space, but effective space is the cap space a team will have after signing at least 51 players and its projected rookie class to its roster.

While $27.7M is a nice start, in order for the Rams to bring in the caliber of player that they want, they are going to need to make some contract adjustments in order to open up that space. The Rams have a lot of potential in terms of cap space. As I wrote earlier this offseason, with maximum restructures, the Rams could have as much as $114.7M in cap space. Hitting that number is unlikely, but it shows the potential.

Here’s an overview of the Rams’ salary cap situation before free agency begins on March 11.

7 biggest cap-hits on Rams roster

1. QB Matthew Stafford: $49.5M (5th)
2. DL Aaron Donald: $34.1M (1st)
3. WR Cooper Kupp: $29.8M (4th)
4. OT Joe Noteboom: $20M (11th)
5. OT Rob Havenstein: $14.7M (10th)
6. TE Tyler Higbee: $12.1M (8th)
7. C Brian Allen: $8.1M (8th)

Coleman Shelton would be the next player on this list, but he could opt-out and become an unrestricted free agent. Most players below Shelton are still on their rookie deals. If anything, this shows just how top-heavy the Rams roster is heading into the season. A goal in free agency will be to help strengthen that middle portion of the roster and balance things out a little better.

Cap space: $27.7M

According to Over the Cap, the Rams have an “effective cap space” of $23.8M. Again, effective cap space factors in how much a team will have to spend after signing at least 51 players and its projected rookie class to its roster. If the Rams are to spend a lot of money this offseason, Snead has a lot of work to do. $23.8M is enough for maybe one really good player.

Carryover cap space: $7.69M

This is how much the Rams will roll over from 2023, according to Spotrac.

Dead Money: $723k

This number is night and day compared to last season. The Rams were carrying $75M in dead money last season according to ESPN. This majority of this season’s dead money comes from Logan Bruss and Robert Rochell who the Rams cut before last season. Bruss is still on the practice squad, but because he was cut from the active roster, he has a dead money cap hit of $424k while Rochell has a dead cap hit of $172k. The Rams bit the bullet last season for this exact reason. Having less than one million dollars in cap space is a number that they can live with in 2024.

Potential cap cuts: OL Joe Noteboom and C Brian Allen

It would not be a surprise if the Rams opted to keep either player. With that said, it’s also very hard to explain paying them at their current cap-hit to be depth players on the roster. Noteboom is set to have a cap hit of $20M. By cutting him, the Rams eat $15M, but save $5M. The Rams could designate these, especially Noteboom, as post-June 1 releases. However, teams only get two and their cap number remains on the roster until June 2.

Assuming that the Rams cut Allen outright, it would save the Rams $4.9M in cap space. Again, Noteboom only saves the Rams $5M whereas a post-June 1 cut would save them $15M. It might make more sense to designate Noteboom as a post-June 1 cut, but for the sake of the exercise and to make it simple, we’ll designate this as a regular cap casualty.

Potential restructures: QB Matthew Stafford, WR Cooper Kupp

When it comes to restructures, it remains pretty simple for the Rams as there are only two players to consider here. Those two players are Stafford and Kupp. By restructuring Stafford, the Rams can save $19.8M. That amount of savings is the eighth-most for any player this offseason. For the Rams to do anything of significance this offseason, restructuring Stafford is imperative.

Next, the Rams will have to consider restructuring Kupp. Depending on if you’re looking at Spotrac or OverTheCap, the savings here ranges from $9.2M to $12.5M. To remain conservative here, we’ll go with the $9.2M number which is still significant and can go towards signing a free agent. By restructuring both Stafford and Kupp, the Rams can save around $29M.

Potential Aaron Donald Extension?

Something that has flown under the radar this offseason is that Aaron Donald is going into the final year of his three-year deal. It’s highly unlikely that Donald plays with no financial security heading into the season. If a deal doesn’t get done, don’t be surprised if retirement rumors surface.

Donald has a cap-hit of $34M which he is more than worth. At the same time, the Rams would like to get that number down so that they can give their star defensive player some help. By extending and restructuring Donald’s deal, they can save a significant amount of money. If Snead and co. can add a year or two on to Donald’s deal and lower his $34M cap-hit to even $27M-$28M, that keeps him among the highest-paid interior defensive linemen and lowers his cap-hit. Ideally, they are able to get this to the $23M-$25M range, but a Donald extension makes a lot of sense.

How much Saved?

If the Rams are able to re-structure Stafford and Kupp while cutting Noteboom and Allen and execute a Donald extension, this would open up around $50M in cap space. This would give them close to $70M in effective cap space to work with in free agency. That should be enough to bring in two really good players and then extend Ernest Jones and sign a few mid/lower-level free agents.

Last offseason, the Rams sacrificed being able to make any additions to the roster by eating a record amount of dead money. They did that for this exact scenario in which they could put themselves in position to splash moves this offseason. We’ll have to wait and see how this front office executes that plan, but it should make for a fun free agency.