All cap data from overthecap.com. [
overthecap.com]
Before Covid the cap for 2021 was going to be around $215M.
The floor for 2021 has been announced ($175M) ... but not the cap.
The league and the NFLPA have agreed to spread the revenue hit that covid causes this season over the next 4 years, but the revenue hit has yet to be finalized. Once it is then the parties have to figure out how to apply it.
But for now, I will assume that they will make it easy on themselves and drop the 2021 cap down to $210M.
Overthecap.com shows the Rams having less cap space than almost every team in the league, ahead of only the Falcons, Eagles, and Saints. If the cap is set at $210M the Rams will have only $14M in cap space.
The Rams currently have 45 guys signed for the 2021 season. That $14M is needed to cover the other 8 guys who fill out the 53 man roster plus anyone on IR, PUP, and the practice squad.
The Rams could create more cap space by cutting guys. These are the only guys that would net more than $1M in cap savings, and personally I don't see any of them getting cut:
Whitworth ($5.3M cap savings)
Havenstein ($5.17M)
Higbee ($5.3M)
Brockers ($4.67M)
Hekker ($2.6M)
Corbett ($1.5M)
In theory they could also create more cap space by restructuring contracts. This typically creates space by converting salary to signing bonus. The Rams don't do this much because it just kicks the can down the road ... but they do it on occasion. What makes this hard to do now is that in 2022 the Rams are again bumping up against the cap with less cap space than anyone except the Texans and Vikings - $50M in cap space with 30 players signed.
AlbaNY_Ram
