A team can't earmark money for their rookie pool. The top 51 guys that the team has under contract count against the cap and there's no mechanism for saving 14 spots or $10.25M for the rookie class. So before Kupp renegotiated his deal the Rams really did only have $1.3M in cap space and needed to sign their rookies with only that much headroom.
However, as the Rams sign their 14 rookies the lowest paid 14 guys get bounced off the list. Those 14 guys, even if they only made $750,000, collectively count $10.5M against the cap. The Rams rookie pool is $10.24M for 2023: every time they sign a rookie one of the low end guys get bounced off the list and the net effect of signing all 14 rookies is essentially nothing.
Anyone who thought that the Rams could sign all their rookies with only $1.3M in cap space was absolutely right. And this is why.
AlbaNY_Ram
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2023 10:42AM by AlbaNY_Ram.
