Here's the hypothesis:
Once QBs start getting paid the big bucks (that will hit right at $30 mil with Cousins (and probably $35 mil by the time we have to pay Goff), that team's ability to sign their own FAs, or acquire other FAs of high quality, diminishes. It is the effect of the hard cap.
Therefore, it seems to me that a team should draft a QB every year with no lower than a mid round pick, in hopes of finding a QB that can take the reins once the Franchise QB gets ready to cash in. Thereby being able to keep many other core players.
Just look at the Rams versus say Minny if they sign Cousins. Jared Goff will count $7mil against the cap in 2018; Cousins will count $30 mil. That's $23 mil more cap space the Rams have to keep/acquire other good players. That's HUGE.
The Rams were able to pick up a Peters and Talib largely because they don't have to pay Goff very much. They'll be able to structure a deal to keep Donald as the highest paid defensive player because they don't have to pay Goff very much.
Drafting a QB with potential every year by no means guarantees you'll find that replacement Franchise QB. But as they say: you can't hit a home run if you don't take a swing.
Yes, the cap goes up some every year. But generally speaking it seems as though most of the increase will go to one player: the Franchise QB. Eventually it does catch up to you.
Now the Pats showed how you CAN defy the issue of the huge Franchise QB money problem but it means you have to find a few positions in which you are going to have yearly turnover and you simply refuse to pay big bucks for. RB for instance. Oline is another. I can't tell you how they Pats have been able to keep restocking the oline with young 1st contract players and maintaining a good Oline; but they do.
Anyway, that's my theory on what the Rams must do to at least attempt to get ahead of the curve.
