Matthew Stafford contract eventually will wreak havoc on Rams’ salary cap

Matthew Stafford contract eventually will wreak havoc on Rams’ salary cap
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Posted by Mike Florio on March 10, 2023, 12:02 PM EST




There’s an important reason why the Rams have pivoted from “@#$%& them picks” to “pluck them picks.” They need a broad nucleus of young, cheap talent to offset the salary-cap disasters looming on their roster.

There’s no bigger coming cap mess than the one associated with quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Although Stafford has a manageable cap figure of $20 million in 2023, trading him would have sparked a $48 million dead-money charge for 2023. Which is reason alone for Stafford to not be traded now.

Next year, the Stafford cap number spikes to $49.5 million. A trade before June 1 would trigger a $55.5 million cap hit.

And, sure, the Rams could (and probably would) restructure Stafford’s $31 million salary for 2024. Still, at some point they’ll be taking a massive cap charge for the $61.5 million he received last year, while carrying a 2022 cap charge of only $13.5 million.

By 2025, Stafford’s cap number will be $50.5 million. He’ll be 37 that year. But it would still cost $37 million in dead money to trade him before June 1.

That’s only two years away. And he’s only been on the team two years. When considering everything they gave up to get him (Jared Goff, two first-round picks, and a third-round pick), it’s hard not to wonder whether it was worth it.

Sure, they won a Super Bowl with Stafford. But that likely will be the only one. And they could end up swirling in a purgatory that may not end for a while.

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#HelmetHornsMatter

“Well, the color is good, I like the metallic blue,” Youngblood recently said while laughing, via NFL Journal. “The horn is terrible. It looks like a ‘C.’ When I first saw it on the logo I honestly thought it was a Charger logo.

“Now when I see it on the helmet, it just isn’t a ram horn. There is no distinct curl like a mature ram horn. I don’t know how the Rams could get that wrong. That is your symbol and it has been for what? Seventy years or more? Longer than I have been alive? It’s just not us, it’s not the Rams.”---Mr. Ram Jack Youngblood