The LA Rams have now exhausted their 2020 NFL salary cap before OLB Leonard Floyd or 2020 NFL Draft prospects are signed

The LA Rams are now running on credit cards. Well, if the NFL allowed them to do so, that is. Despite sitting out the majority of the 2020 NFL Free Agency market, the LA Rams have already exhausted their 2020 available salary-cap space, per Over The Cap. That is before the team adds OLB Leonard Floyd, whom the team had committed millions to sign for just one year. And it is before the team announces even one name at the 2020 NFL Draft. You see, the draft merely creates the exclusive contractual relationship between the LA Rams and an NFL Draft hopeful.

The Rams will need to pay for six such prospects. After that, the team will need to find money to sign about 25 additional undrafted free agents, many of whom will require incentives like a signing bonus to agree to terms with the LA Rams.

Estimates for the Leonard Floyd contract of up to $13 million for one year, plus the $4.3 million amount placeholder for 2020 NFL Draft selections, means the Rams must come up with approximately $17.6 million, or the amount that can only be found by restructuring Jared Goff‘s salary, or trading both RT Rob Havenstein and WR Brandin Cooks after June 1.

The LA Rams are player personnel consultants right now. They commit to players and then try to figure out a way to pay for them. While that’s not how the system is designed, the NFL policies regarding the COVID-19 threat which has restricted team contact with players. That means teams can verbally commit to players, yet delay the medical examination which allows the team to sign a contract.

That is the loophole that allowed the LA Rams to commit to signing Leonard Floyd on March 18, 2020, and yet the team still has not signed him to a contract on April 8, 2020.

While this can and will be resolved, it emphasizes the need for the Rams to balance their personnel budgets far more effectively into the future. Yes, stars need to be paid. But the team cannot do so at the expense of paying other positions on the team’s roster. What good is paying a quarterback tops in the NFL if the team cannot afford to pay the offensive line burdened with protecting him?

It seems very much like the LA Rams are content to bite the bullet this year, to clean up the salary cap for 2021 and beyond. But in doing so, the Rams have greatly handicapped their ability to restock the roster for the 2020 NFL season. There is a great deal of unnecessary pressure upon the LA Rams heading into this NFL Draft. Hopefully, the team will be able to find quality talent with their six picks.