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Rams salary cap update coming out of free agency

Los Angeles Rams fans didn’t have much to get excited about during free agency this year, with the team only signing one outside free agent: DeSean Jackson. They did re-sign Leonard Floyd to a massive $64 million extension and retained Darious Williams as a restricted free agent, but it has been a quiet offseason besides the Jared Goff-Matthew Stafford blockbuster.

That’s because the salary cap, which decreased this year, limited what the Rams could do in free agency.

While they could still make a move or two before the draft, don’t expect any big names to land in Los Angeles. According to the NFLPA’s public salary cap report, the Rams have $8.302 million in cap space remaining. Over The Cap, which lays it out player by player, has the Rams with $7.595 million in cap space for 2021.

Over The Cap’s projection includes Jackson’s contract, which comes with a cap hit of $3.3 million this year. It also has Williams’ $4.766 million first-round tender, as well as the restructured contracts of Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Robert Woods, Andrew Whitworth and Cooper Kupp.

Whitworth’s base salary is $4 million and is fully guaranteed, a $3 million pay cut from what he was set to earn as a salary in 2021. As of now, Matthew Stafford has the highest cap hit on the team ($20 million), followed by Donald ($14.4 million), Ramsey ($9.7 million) Rob Havenstein (8.3 million) and Tyler Higbee ($7.5 million).

Over The Cap estimates that the Rams’ effective cap space needed to sign its 2021 draft class – which currently includes six picks – is $1.036 million, so not a significant amount thanks to the absence of a first-round pick.

The Rams don’t have many other ways to free up cap space outside of restructuring Stafford’s deal, but they seem reluctant to do that right now. So they have about $6.6 million to spend this offseason, which is why they’re unlikely to make a major splash before the season begins.

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