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RFL
I am going to start a new thread on Noteboom just to make a particular point.
It's easy to lose sight of the organizational significance of our having drafted this guy. This is a major coup with what would be long lasting benefits.
As we all know, there are a few positions in football that have outstanding significance. On offense, there are 2: QB and LOT. And BOTH are really hard to come by.
Usually, to get a quality LOT one needs to spend a high pick or a lot of assets in a trade or FA signing. We got Notebook for, what, a 3rd rounder? That's unbelievably cheap as an acquisition price.
But the benefits of HOW we got him reach into the future. Remember how everyone has been talking about how having a good, 1st contract QB makes all the difference for lots of teams in terms of their salary cap? They say that about 1st rounders. Noteboom is a 3rd rounder. Of course, LOTs make less than QBs do, so the benefit isn't quite as great as it would be for a 3rd round QB. But, it is significant.
Next year, there's a good chance that Whit retires. Even if he doesn't, Demoff will be sore pressed to pay all the quality vets we have. Without Noteboom, we'd be looking at paying Whit, paying a different quality vet, trying to trade, or perhaps trading up in the draft. It is easy to imagine an agonizing choice between Whit and, say, Joyner or Brockers (I think both are up?) And trying to replace him under duress is not a pretty thought.
But with Noteboom, we have what appears to be a quality choice at LOT for a 3rd rounder's salary. That is a serious alleviation of our cap stress.
We have Noteboom for, what is it, 4 years? 4 years of a quality LOT for 3rd rounder money? Wow.
Obviously, I am assuming that Noteboom doesn't disappoint us. I suppose he still might. But Man he looks awfully damn good for a 3rd round rookie. Hell, for anyone. He sure seems like the real deal.
And we have a couple other rookie OL looking awfully good as well. If these guys continue to hang in there, you have 3/5ths of an OL in one draft no earlier than the 3rd round. Quality OL for a REALLY nice price! And backups who can actually play! (D'Marco was talking about how they have been getting starters' minutes this PS, improving, and looking solid. Already! He kept reminding himself not to trust rookies.)
This is the sort of coup that serves as a foundation stone for a franchise's mid- to long-term success.
And just think of how we beat our heads against the wall at OL and LOT for so many years. 2 EARLY 1st round busts. Saffold, who kept getting hurt. All the injuries and craziness. In 2 off seasons, our FO has transformed a Swiss cheese OL into not only a good but also a deep unit to support years of offense. All while leaving cap room for other positions.
This old Ram fan is pretty damn happy about all of this. Goff and Gurley don't mean much without it!
Good post. Also if NB is a starting caliber LOT then above all it opens up what can happen with the 2019 1st round pick.
But I wouldn't worry about cap stress. They're not stressed. In 2019 according to the estimates from over.the.cap.com Rams have 58 M in cap space. That;s without them accounting for Hav yet so it's really more like 50 M.
And that's 50 M with Cooks, Gurley, Brockers, Whitworth, Barron, Peters, Talib, and Hav all on the books counting against the cap, and Goff coming in at nearly 9 M. 50 M is enough to handle Donald, the 2019 draft, and then maybe another big move or 2 (Suh? Saffold?)
Goff doesn't hit the books until 2021 (which is probably a strike year but let's nevermind that for the time being). By the time Goff does hit the books in 2021, the cap will be somewhere (it's estimated) around 220 M. They say you want your top contracts to take up no more than 60% of your cap, which would be around 132 M. That's enough to keep Cooks, Gurley, Peters, Hav, Donald, and Goff--even factoring in how expensive a couple of those are--with room for 2-3 more big contracts depending. I would say in 2021, if NB actually IS a starting LOT, that would be the year to extend him, because he's a free agent the year after. Which is doable.
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