Dzrams' 2018 Mock Off Season

CUTS

Tavon Austin - save $3M
Mark Barron - save $7M - the Rams have the 2 highest paid ILB’s in AO and Barron. That’s unsustainable and they essentially chose to go with AO over him when they gave AO the contract extension.
Webster - save $4M - his injury is a tough one to come back from and has a long recovery time. Next year is his last under contract and they may only have him fully healthy for about half the season. Cut your losses now… Besides, there is not much drop off, if any, between him and Troy Hill.

Cuts Commentary: I see the Rams having to make a choice between cutting one of Barron or Quinn. They choose to keep Quinn because he had 7 sacks in the last 6 weeks of the season indicating he may be healthy or fully settled into his role. That type of production over a full season is worth $12M given that edge rushers are the 2nd highest paid position in the league. That late production is also why he wouldn’t agree to a pay cut.


NOTABLE OUTGOING FREE AGENTS

Trumaine Johnson - Wants elite CB money but isn’t elite. Also, he’s not a Wade Philips press CB.
Connor Barwin - He was a smart one year vet pick up that played well but Ebukam showed that he could start when Barwin was injured. I believe Ebukam played every bit as well as Connor did.
Cody Davis - Good backup but some team will pay him near starter money. With their great safety tandem in Joyner and JJ III, the Rams can’t afford to do that.


RE-SIGN / EXTENSION

Sammy Watkins - 4 year deal at $11.5M per year. ($7M 2018 cap hit) - So many differing opinions on his value but the bottom line is, he was a big part of the #1 scoring offense. McVay won’t want to take a step down from that.
Joyner - 5 year deal at $9M per year. ($5M 2018 cap hit) - They will keep their great safety tandem in play for several more years.
John Sullivan - Bring him back for two years at $3M per.
Nickell Robey-Coleman - Very good nickel CB returns at 3 years, $4M per year.
Jake McQuaide - $1.2M - ST has been awesome, McQuaide is part of that and is rewarded with the highest salary for a LS. (All vet LS’s are paid around $1M.)
Matt Longacre - 2nd round tender at $2.9M
Troy Hill - Exclusive RFA tender - .63M
Malcolm Brown - Exclusive RFA tender - .63M
Dominique Easley - $1M - One year deal, very cheap due to his injury. He was very good in 2016 which is why they take another chance on him. He will back up Donald.

Aaron Donald - $126M / 6 years for $21M per year; ($8M 2018 cap hit. Huge 2019 cap hit.) The DPOY becomes the highest paid defensive player. He’s willing to lay aside the jaw-breaking, unprecedented demands because he sees the team is on a winning track and wants to be a part of that.

Resignings / Extensions Commentary: As is Demoff's custom, the longer contracts have lower first year cap hits to fit them in. Donald's 2018 salary is only $1M more than what it already is set to be. There is a large $30M hit in 2019 and starts declining from there in anticipation of Goff and Gurley extensions. Same for the Watkins and Joyner contracts.


FREE AGENTS

ILB, NaVorro Bowman - Short term 3 year deal at $5M per year. Swapping him in for Barron while saving $2M is a win.
OT, Cameron Fleming - 3 year deal at $3.25M per year. Very good swing tackle that NE can’t afford to retain. He is capable of doing a decent job filling in at LT if Whit were to go down and challenging Hav for the starting RT position. He buys the Rams time to draft the future LT.
TE, Jimmy Graham - Short term 2 year deal at $7M per year. With a Graham and Everett tandem, the Rams transform TE to a strength and shore up the RZ scoring weakness. Doing this, while retaining Watkins, should help raise the offensive efficiency (6th in DVOA rating) to the top.
CB, Baushad Breeland - 4 year deal at $7M per year ($5M 2018 cap hit) - A Wade style, press man CB who McVay is familiar with. Has a very similar PFF ranking to TruJ.
CB, Ross Cockrell - 2 year deal at $4M per year. - swap Cockrell in for Webster who may not be available until later in the year.

Free Agent Commentary: In this scenario they are much more active in the free agent market than many would expect. However, given that it’s a new coaching staff, they’ll continue with moving in their type of player. This level of activity for a new staff is not uncommon. And before anyone says that we can’t afford to do this, I should let you know that I had a lot of fun - and spent way too much time - planning out every contract in Overthecap’s calculator. That includes thinking about how Goff and Gurley’s upcoming extensions should be structured. The short of it is, it can be done.

What they accomplish is setting the offense up to be dominant with the addition of Graham. It also gives Everett time to develop and allows McVay to move on from Higbee which is something I suspect he is looking to do. The D is much improved by adding an elite run defender in Bowman and two solid CBs.


DRAFT

Trade #23 ---> #29, #93

1st, 29 - CB, Mike Hughes - He's probably coming out a year early but he has #1 CB talent. With the two FA signings, there is no need to rush him in.
3rd, 87 - OLB, Dorance Armstrong, JR - He slides due to a lack of production which resulted from offenses scheming away from him after a dominant 2016.
3rd, 93 - NT, Tim Settle
4th, 119 - C/OG - Frank Ragnow
5th - OG/C - Tony Adams
6th - RB, Kalen Ballage - standout Senior Bowl performance per PFF which Snead will love; demonstrated great receiving skills...
6th - OLB, Shaquem Griffin - another standout Senior Bowl performance per PFF.
6th - ILB, Micah Kiser - this guy reminds me of the now retired Chris Borland. Super productive, great against the run.

Draft Commentary: With free agency done, there are no acute needs except for NT. I think this is Snead’s goal every off season.

The way things currently appear, there may be several good CBs in late 1st, early 2nd such as Hughes, Alexander, and Averett. Snead slides down a few spots to pick up a 3rd while nabbing a CB in a place where need better meets value. In addition to CB, they address every need on defense.

With the addition of Fleming in free agency, I see them waiting on the OT need; instead they fortify the interior OL in the mid rounds with two versatile players.