Stafford takes up 19.3% of the cap this year. But the Rams could, if they wanted to, convert $29M of his salary to a signing bonus and move $23.2M of his cap hit to future years . That would drop his cap hit this year from $49.5M to $26.3M ... which is less than 11% of the cap.
By comparison, the Rams carried $78.65M in dead money last year, which was a tick below $35% of the 2023 cap. As you know they still went 10-7 and made the playoffs. My thought: if they can burn 35% of their cap and do that well in 2023 they can handle Stafford's 19.3%. And if the Rams disagree they can drop Stafford to 11%.
The downside, of course, of doing that is they just push the pain down the road. However, it seems crystal clear that the Rams have a three year window and IMO they ought to be maximizing their opportunities thru 2026.
And so ... they can restructure Stafford again next year (saving $20M against the 2025 cap) and then triple down by restructuring him again in 2026 (saving around $20M against the 2026 cap).
I'm thinking the window is closed then. And then the pain comes due to the tune of $41.6M in dead money for Stafford in 2027.
Note that overthecap.com projects the 2027 cap to be $314M so Stafford's dead money would be 13% of the cap. Small potatoes compared to 2023, and actually less cap than Stafford is currently taking in 2024.
AlbaNY_Ram
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2024 12:14PM by AlbaNY_Ram.
