I don't agree.
First, no one really knows if the Rams are "trying to hold down" contracts. That means that they are trying to pay someone like Donald less than the market. Is that true? Do we know that?
Second, the Rams CAN'T hold down contracts. They can only sign cheaper guys or let guys walk or both, if their aim is to be frugal at the expense of top talent. They can no more hold down contract numbers than any other team can---they can only sign their best players or let other teams sign them.. Looking only at 2nd contracts, a guy gets what the market sets that year from one team...or, from another team. As for the fantasy that the Rams can lowball Donald by underpaying him on tags for a couple of years, he would walk from that and demand a trade, and no team can afford to get nothing for a top player that does that.
Third, yes, you invest in your top players...like all good teams do...and build around that with draft picks, UDFAs, cuts, bargain FAs. I just described the 99 Rams in fact. It had the most UDFAs starting of any superbowl team I can think of---Jenkins, Fletcher, Farr, Nutten, Gruttadauria then McCollum, Horne, Warner. Or it;s like the way Wade's defenses work. They always have stars (eg. Von Miller) but then he also makes top defenses out of teams that have low picks and UDFAs at ILB. If you don't believe in your personnel dept. then you don't believe they can do that, if you do believe in your personnel dept. then you believe they can always dig up players to make an entire team to go along with your stars.
If I were to make an ideal team that included Rams parts, it would have top contracts at CB, OLB, DL, LOT, QB, and WR...which leaves room, if they sign Donald and Goff and the money works accordingly, for a couple of others.
The above was a zn quote. My reply follows...
Where to start?
Re your first point, every team tries to sign their players for the least possible amount. That’s not “less than the market”. That BECOMES the market. No team would willingly pay a player whatever that teams fans would like. That would be madness! It comes down to a meeting of the minds between player and team. Period.
Re your second point, Rams tagging of AD would constitute a perfectly acceptable strategy, fully approved by the CBA. It would be beyond foolish for the Rams to take that threat off the table. As to AD walking and demanding a trade? Highly unlikely. A players threat to take himself out of the market for 2 years during his prime is not a very credible thing. But if AD were to follow through with it, then the Rams would be forced to trade him, I suppose. For a king’s ransom in a bidding war where the acquiring team would naturally pre-negotiate an AD extension. To suggest that the Rams could wind up empty handed is kinda naive.
Re your third point, well, we sorta agree. A winning team must have a good personnel dept and good coaches to keep surrounding their elite players with sufficient quality of incoming and very inexpensive talent that will enable the team to keep on winning. The underlying question remains. How many elite players and at what salaries can the Rams afford to maintain winning continuity? The “how many” and “how much” is where it gets tricky.
To summarize:
The cap is ultimately gonna limit the retention of elite players. When one player gets a bigger slice, there is less remaining for the others. That zero sum thing, and it cannot be ignored.
No team can keep every player that they covet. No team. They must all make excruciating personnel decisions when it comes down to which of their top players they will extend.
A long term winning team simply has to have a very good FO and excellent coaches to keep the incoming pipeline full of talented players that can quickly be coached up. I think that the Rams have both of those things.
My personal prediction? AD and the Rams get this done this year, possibly by opening day. Not a gaurantee, mind you, more of a 60-40 guesstimate. I don’t think it’s been about the money for quite some time, btw. Once the “opt out” or “let Mack sign first” BS is off the table I think that there can be a quick meeting of the minds.
But if AD and his pos agent want to play hardball indefinitely? They shouldn’t be surprised if the Rams counter. We shouldn’t make this personal because it’s just business.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2018 08:17AM by Rams43.
