As FA approaches I thought I would throw out some information and try and be as factual as possible. So if I am wrong, please correct me.
Salary cap in the offseason - top 51 players. Salary Cap day before 1st game - every player on the roster including any on IR. Not the PS players.
What is the Salary Cap this year? Somewhere between 187-191
Basing it on 190m, the Rams have roughly 24.3m dollars of cap space (courtesy of overthecap.com) Spottrac.com bases it off 189m and says the Rams have 23.6m in cap space. So there is a .3m differential there. I'm going with a cap of 24m for simplicity sake.
How many players does that include as of today (2-27-19)? 48 on the roster under contract
What is the Rookie Pool for the Rams after compensatory picks added in? 5.553m (in reality the cap space will be less because after 51 players a guy added will drop a guy off until the season starts)
So that's 7 draft picks + 48 under contract players = 55 players @ 171.5m +/- , and 4 players will not count @ 495,000 per player which is basically 2m
So right now the Rams would have 51 players @ 169.5m against the cap. Assuming 190m, that leaves 20.5m in cap space.
So on to Restricted Free Agents:
S Blake Countess
CB Troy Hill
RB Malcolm Brown
LB Cory Littleton
Of those 4, I see littleton getting a 2nd round tender of 3.11m
That lowers the cap room by 2.615m (3.110m - .495m = 2.615) as 1 player added drops another off
New cap space with Littleton and 7 rookies: 17.885m in cap. And a total of 56 players (which would mean 3 will fall of of the 53 man roster, but cap space is needed for the eventual IR player or 3.
Possible cap casualties:
Brockers - 0.75m in dead, 10.25m in cap savings - another restructure or he could be in trouble.
Barron - 3.33m in dead, 6.33m in cap savings. I just don't see how you keep him around.
Peters - cutting him saves 9m. - Still 9m is cheap for a starting CB. he stays for 1 more year.
Talib - cutting him saves 8m - But again, cheap starter. Keep him.
These guys are #4,5,7 and 10 as far as the Rams top cap #s for 2019.
John Sullivan is #12 at 6.25m against the cap. Cutting him saves 5.25m with 1m in dead money.
After Sully, NR-C counts 6m against the cap and Hekker is next at 4m, no other player counts over 2.6m so cutting anyone else or re-structuring will not save enough money to move the needle much.
What does this tell me? Brockers is going to have to re-structure and Barron is gone. There is a real possibility Sullivan is also gone.
So to recap (total cap savings by cutting)
Brockers - 10.25m
Barron - 6.33m
Sullivan - 5.25
Total savings - 21.83m
That would leave the Rams with 39.715m in cap space with 53 players on the roster.
Obviously that created holes at C, ILB and DT. Along with holes at S (Joyner) and Edge (Fowler).
Space would be needed to resign Saffold as well.
TL;DR
Current cap space - roughly 24.3m
Cap space after including draft picks - 20.5m
Cap space after including Littleton at the 2nd round tender - 17.885m
Cap space after cutting Brockers (10.25) Barron (6.33) Sullivan (5.25) - 39.715m
Right?
Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way. - Ragnar Lothbrok
