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theramswire.usatoday.com] Rams exec: Cautious approach to free agency 'is pretty normal for us'
Cameron DaSilva
March 30, 2023 5:34 am PT
Through the first two weeks of free agency, the Los Angeles Rams haven’t signed a single player from another team. The only two signings they’ve completed are Coleman Shelton and Marquise Copeland, both of whom were on the Rams’ roster last season.
For a team that looks even worse than last year’s 5-12 squad on paper, fans aren’t exactly thrilled with the front office’s lack of activity in the acquisition department.
Rams VP of football and business administration Tony Pastoors doesn’t feel this is anything out of the ordinary for Los Angeles. Even though the Rams have signed some big names in the past, including Bobby Wagner, Allen Robinson, Ndamukong Suh and Andrew Whitworth, he says they’re not usually big players in free agency.
“I told some of our beat (writers) today, when they’re like, ‘Oh, well, kind of a reset year,'” Pastoors said Monday, via the team’s official site. “I was like, maybe I missed it, when was the last time we were heavily involved in free agency? This is pretty normal for us. I know Les (Snead) probably shared, look at the last four years, we probably lead the NFL in comp picks. And a lot of – whether it was Matthew (Stafford), Aaron (Donald), Cooper (Kupp), those deals got done last year, but really those deals were for ’23 and beyond, right? All of them had time left on current deals. Obviously coming off a Super Bowl, we did some things out of the ordinary for them, but those were basically, had we not done them, we’d be staring at them right now, so we actually got ahead of things, full knowing what was ahead ’23, ’24, ’25.”
The Rams have made it abundantly obvious that they’re trying to be more financially responsible this offseason in an attempt to clear cap space for 2024 and beyond. It’s why they didn’t restructure many of their current contracts besides Brian Allen’s and Joe Noteboom’s. Doing so would’ve eaten into their available money in 2024 and 2025.
They also don’t have a ton of space to begin with this year, even after parting with Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner and Leonard Floyd. Currently, Over The Cap estimates the Rams with $10.6 million in cap space.
It’s enough to sign a few more free agents but they’re not going to go crazy with their offseason additions.
