Offseason Roster Insanity

[Kupped]

The Rams really don't have a future right now beyond those guys. The simple truth is that we're playing for the present. As I said before, do what we have to do to win while our window is open, dump the dead cap into a future year when the window closes, accept that we'll suck that year, take our lumps, and then come out of it with high draft picks and a strong cap situation. There's not much to be gained by making a halfhearted effort to win while our window is open in hopes of avoiding a bad year when it closes.

Yeah…. Thinking there’s any easy transition into a new era is not realistic, imo.
Crash for a year or two.. flush your dead cap and get a few high draft picks.

 

[Corbin]

I'm so tired of people with their Creed Humphries underoos and pillow cases.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Creed soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds Humphrey bed spreads,
While visions of All Pro’s danc’d in their heads,
And Creed in anchoring the line, and being under the cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Why it’s OldSchool complaining on what we should of done while getting fatter.

-Creed Humphrey 1658 Boston MA New World

 

[Kupped]

 

[So Ram]

Well let’s say The Rams will be better of with Tutu Atwell. The Rams signed A’ Robinson as there UFA.

Rams traded Robert Woods
—Rams had OBJ coming back if they did there part.
Powell is playing well. Like I said in training camp he looked like a poor teams Deebo.

—My rebuttal to Tutu is The Rams didn’t know Ben Skow was going to be as good as he has.

 

[So Ram]

Well if we are looking at Cap &The Rams future. It was nice to see Hopkins & Higbee lining up next to each other on a run play & blocked well. Then ran nice routes for each other as well.

The Rams need a TE to build.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Ill never get the dislike for Higs.

He's a solid addition to this offense, that is compensated fairly.

 

[PhillyRam]

Yeah…. Thinking there’s any easy transition into a new era is not realistic, imo.
Crash for a year or two.. flush your dead cap and get a few high draft picks.

We transitioned from the Gurley/ Goff era pretty seamlessly so it's possible. And that included moving on from guys like Cooks, Saffold, Peter's & Talib. So it's been done before.

And also remember the cap continues to increase so some of these future big dead money years to come won't look as bad in 2025 or 2026. Plus guys like Kupp & Ramsey could be playing another 4 or 5 yrs with the way they keep themselves in shape and ability to tweak their roles.

 

[Kupped]

We transitioned from the Gurley/ Goff era pretty seamlessly so it's possible. And that included moving on from guys like Cooks, Saffold, Peter's & Talib. So it's been done before.

And also remember the cap continues to increase so some of these future big dead money years to come won't look as bad in 2025 or 2026. Plus guys like Kupp & Ramsey could be playing another 4 or 5 yrs with the way they keep themselves in shape and ability to tweak their roles.

Maybe?
If McVay is still around, you could see a vet QB force his way into the team, if things looked good.
I just feel like they’ll need a reboot in the next few years.
I’ll put it this way… I’d rather them go all in next year than hope incremental improvements will get them back in the Super Bowl.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Floyd
Ramsey
Higbee
Noteboom
Allen

If I am seeing it right… Those appear the contracts that can give us the most space in 2023 via restructure, trade, or release.

Stafford, Donald, Kupp all have big guarantees still to write down.

 

[Riverumbbq]

Ill never get the dislike for Higs.

He's a solid addition to this offense, that is compensated fairly.

It's not necessarily 'dislike', it's more about coming to terms with value. Higbee has missed on some big opportunities, he's never approached 1000 yards for a season, he's been nicked up a lot, he's not much of a blocker and his drop percentage (7.2%) is at an all time high.
The Rams are up against a CAP wall next year, so looking for potential savings is just something we fans might explore, and there aren't a lot of other players who can offer the team savings as well as a draft pick unless you prefer to move guys like Ramsey or Donald as some are discussing, or increase future dead money with huge restructuring deals. If we can avoid mortgaging our future, there may be some alternatives. Do we prefer to spend our limited CAP for Gaines, Gay & potentially even Mayfield, do we attempt to trade Donald or Ramsey, or would we rather move Higbee and maybe a couple of other 'B' level players ?
jmo.

 

[HitStick]

AD is a special case. I think with him it is all about what he wants. He is AD. If he wants to play closer to Pittsburgh or in Pittsburgh only then the team will make it happen. So didn't include him in the above and we'll wait and see what he's thinking.

Is this a thing he’s ever eluded to? I’ve seen this mentioned millions of times, but have yet to ever see a statement where AD has said he wants to play anywhere else

 

[Dodgersrf]

It's not necessarily 'dislike', it's more about coming to terms with value. Higbee has missed on some big opportunities, he's never approached 1000 yards for a season, he's been nicked up a lot, he's not much of a blocker and his drop percentage (7.2%) is at an all time high.
The Rams are up against a CAP wall next year, so looking for potential savings is just something we fans might explore, and there aren't a lot of other players who can offer the team savings as well as a draft pick unless you prefer to move guys like Ramsey or Donald as some are discussing, or increase future dead money with huge restructuring deals. If we can avoid mortgaging our future, there may be some alternatives. Do we prefer to spend our limited CAP for Gaines, Gay & potentially even Mayfield, do we attempt to trade Donald or Ramsey, or would we rather move Higbee and maybe a couple of other 'B' level players ?
jmo.

He's a decent pass catching TE. He's not great, but certainly gets the job done.

Had McVay ran more 12 personnel earlier this year, I believe the perception of him may be a bit brighter.

 

[Riverumbbq]

He's a decent pass catching TE. He's not great, but certainly gets the job done.

Had McVay ran more 12 personnel earlier this year, I believe the perception of him may be a bit brighter.

We only have 2 more games left to hopefully see more 12 personnel, McVay is likely to revert back to 3 WR sets once his full complement of receivers are back from injury. I'm with you though in that we should have gone 12 much earlier, I posted about it after Kupp went down.

 

[Dodgersrf]

We only have 2 more games left to hopefully see more 12 personnel, McVay is likely to revert back to 3 WR sets once his full complement of receivers are back from injury. I'm with you though in that we should have gone 12 much earlier, I posted about it after Kupp went down.

McVay waited far too long to run it.
Just like he did a couple years ago, back when Goff was getting killed.

I dont expect to see it much next year either.
I just hope McVay remembers that he has that option, if we are in the same situation again.

If he runs more 12 earlier in the season, we may be in play for a wild card spot.

 

[OldSchool]

I could see an extension for Higs to lower next years cap hit more than trading him. Especially if we aren’t starting a reset now.

 

[Loyal]

I know some of you are willing to go down this rabbit hole with me. And maybe a shitty candle on one of those old candle holder things. Or maybe a flashlight with shitty batteries. There is of course a ton we don't know but something like that cannot stop us.

Here's the top cap hits for 2023 courtesy of Sportrac. By the way they have a very cool "manage roster" function that you can move or cut players and see the impact, if you're worried about things like numbers. Which I obviously do not concern myself with from my evil lair and reclining easy chair. I will allow my underpaid minions like @OldSchool to correct me when I'm making outlandish assumptions about cap.

View attachment 58058

Loading up the 2023 Salary Cap for the Rams it says we're at -$1.9M...

View attachment 58060

The calculated market values listed above are the FAs. Of that group Gay is a key signing, Mayfield is likely to cost a ton more than that $6.5M listed, and Aboushi I think they may get inked before the offseason since he's been solid for us and is 31 so it's reasonable to think he's got a couple years left and let him compete for a job next year in camp. If any of them hit FA they are gone I think, simply because of our cap situation.

So the best place to start is the performance vs pay equation. Who's getting paid but delivering a steaming pile of excrement on the field?

Performance vs Pay low producers:

1. Robinson. If anyone is begging to be cut it is Robinson, who has been an enormously unsuccessful signing. But of course his contract looks like it keeps him here for year two, which is not the worst thing. This has after all been a shitty season all around, and Robinson is a catch radius guy, so there is still a chance we recoup value on the field with him.

2. Floyd. I suspect Leo's been playing hurt and from what it sounds like he does that a lot. But in terms of overall performance since the Rams ponied up the bucks for him, he has put the Rams in the red. We certainly have not garnered the value of what he is paid on the field. Hoecht coming out of nowhere demonstrates that you can find rotational strong side types without too much problem, so Floyd represents an easy way to reduce our PvP issue. I think he is a 100% certainty to be on the trade block, question is whether there are any takers.

3. Ramsey. I will say first off that Ramsey does some good things. He is a good starter still, just not the eraser he used to be. The problem is he is being paid as an eraser. So I think one of two things will happen this offseason. Either he will restructure to more closely equate his pay to what he is, or he will be traded. He has lost quickness without a doubt in my mind. He is only 28 still as well. So now is a really smart time to trade him. We can get out before the floor drops out from under him so to speak. Expectation is Rams put him on the market quickly if he balks at the restructure. If it was me he would be a 100% trade block option.

4. Stafford. I feel shitty even typing this one. He took a non-greedy contract to allow the team to stack things around him. He won us the Lombardi, I mean he was our best player in the crunch and that playoff run was Hall of Fame quality IMO. But the dude is old and beat up and had elbow surgery and looked shitty for chunks of this season. He did some good things too, granted. He was punished by that shitty OL too. But age is undefeated and the team has to ask that hard question of how much time does he have remaining. Do we realistically have two years left in him? I don't know the answer to that. So I'll say he may be a situation where they clear him out. Now if that happens the Rams would undoubtedly only move him to a place he wants to go. Not that it makes it any better, but he might get a better shot to win another ring with another team if this offseason is anything less than a slam dunk. Note: best option of all is the Rams get Baker inked on a short termer and having a fantastic 1-2 at QB but it's hard to imagine him doing that at this point, going off the film he is putting out right now.

5. Noteboom. This one seems similar to Robinson in that they just signed him so moving him I presume will be difficult. I seriously doubt a LT of the future slides to them in round two. So the only way we end up with a young buck who has legit LT upside is if we move up in the draft or if the guy has red flags and shit. So we're going to need Boom as a hold it down option at a minimum and who knows maybe he does a great job for us next year. I would just feel a ton better if they can find an upside type for the depth chart.

6. Allen. Using the Sportrac Manager to cut Allen nets us a $2.6M gain which, when coupled with his injury unavailability and general inconsistencies seems like a positive. So he looks like a cut to me. Best of luck to you Brian. Shelton will be penciled in as the starter at center this offseason and the team will draft a pivot midrounds. Or maybe they'll just draft a receiver midrounds instead just to watch RoD implode.

We need the next Jerome Bettis.

I want a guy who imposes his will as the game goes on. Get a couple of Oline who will be healthy the whole year and open holes for the big guy. Make Stafford lethal again, by giving him a smashmouth running game.

 

[Loyal]

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Creed soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds Humphrey bed spreads,
While visions of All Pro’s danc’d in their heads,
And Creed in anchoring the line, and being under the cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Why it’s OldSchool complaining on what we should of done while getting fatter.

-Creed Humphrey 1658 Boston MA New World

You stalkin' me?

 

[Merlin]

Is this a thing he’s ever eluded to? I’ve seen this mentioned millions of times, but have yet to ever see a statement where AD has said he wants to play anywhere else

No. He has alluded to retiring though. And his daughter is a known factor and lives in Pittsburgh. I think it is reasonable that he may want to play for the team where he will live and where his family is.

 

[dieterbrock]

I could see an extension for Higs to lower next years cap hit more than trading him. Especially if we aren’t starting a reset now.

All things considered, his cap hit isnt too bad, 8 mill. 6.25 mill in salary
I cant see how they get any type of return for him in a trade, maybe a 5th rounder?

 

[OldSchool]

All things considered, his cap hit isnt too bad, 8 mill. 6.25 mill in salary
I cant see how they get any type of return for him in a trade, maybe a 5th rounder?

Yeah Rams fans will mock a 3rd back to us but a day three pick seems more likely.