This is what AJ Shulte says:
Now that it's verified, after doing some math, Rams can knock themselves up into the top-10 in cap space available by restructuring Donald, Ramsey, and then extend Stafford's contract.
Will put them at about 21M in available room.In reality they can do a lot more than that if they want to. Here's one way to free up $29M:
Donald has 4 years left on his contract and his salary in 2021 is $19,892,000. If the Rams converted $16M of that to a signing bonus it would be spread over those 4 years, $4M a year.
That creates $12M in cap space in 2021 while adding $4M to 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Ramsey has 5 years left on his contract and his salary in 2021 is $17,500,000. If the Rams converted $15M of that to a signing bonus it would be spread over those 5 years, $3M a year.
That creates $12M in cap space in 2021 while adding $3M to 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Stafford has 2 years left on his contract and the Rams will likely owe him $43M.
2021: $9.5M salary, $10M roster bonus, $.5M workout bonus. That's a $20M cap hit.
2022: $12.5M salary, $10M roster bonus, $.5M workout bonus. And that's a $23M cap hit.
For argument's sake let's say the Ram gave him $70M for another 2 years, $49M guaranteed of which $24M is a signing bonus. So the deal would be 4 years, $113M and could be structured like this for cap purposes:
2021: $8.5M salary, $6M pro rated signing bonus, $.5M workout bonus. Cap hit: $15M (
That creates $5M in cap savings in 2021)
2022: $16.5M salary, $6M pro rated signing bonus, $.5M workout bonus. Cap hit: $23M (same as the old deal)
2023: $25.5M salary, $6M pro rated signing bonus, $.5M workout bonus. Cap hit: $36M (salary not guaranteed!)
2024: $32.5M salary, $6M pro rated signing bonus, $.5M workout bonus. Cap hit: $39M (salary not guaranteed!)
For comparison purposes:
Mahomes' cap hits in 2023 & 2024: $42.25M & $39.95M
Watson's cap hits in 2022, 2023, & 2024: $40.4M, $42.4M, and $37.4M
Wilson's cap hits in 2022 & 2023: $37M and $39M
AlbaNY_Ram
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2021 12:19PM by AlbaNY_Ram.
