Tre’Davious White’s signing with the Rams on Tuesday makes them an intriguing team.
By agreeing to a one-year, $8.5 million contract with Tre’Davious White on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Rams sent a strong message that they are not concerned about their running out of cap room. The Rams don’t seem to be concerned about 2025 either.
It feels like an all-out season again.
Why is this a “all-in” action?
I am aware that adding Tre’Davious White at this point in his career won’t have the same effect as acquiring Jalen Ramsey through trade. Not even near. The term “all-in” merely refers to the reality that, even if there is still a lot of work to be done, this decision will drastically reduce the Rams’ available salary space for 2024:
The Rams are still far shy of a 90-man roster as they now have 61 players signed, including White and excluding Donald. The Rams have signed more players than any other NFL team—the Ravens and Chargers are the only other two.
Before we learn the specifics of White’s contract, Los Angeles will have roughly $16.7 million in cap space. With incentives, it might have been as much as $10 million, but it was reported as $8.5 million. There would only be $8.2 million in cap space in 2024 if the Rams took on the whole $8.5 million. Furthermore, actual cap space may be less than half of it; that is merely the total cap space. Alright, let’s use $4.5 million.
With the third-most roster positions that need to be filled, that would place the Rams in 24th place in terms of effective cap room.
There isn’t a realistic amount that doesn’t drastically affect the Rams’ possible moves, even if they had void years to reduce the cap charge. This is because Los Angeles has so little left to give. Even though White’s salary is only $4 million, the Rams will still likely feel the impact, and there’s no assurance that he will play more or better than current club members Derion Kendrick and Cobie Durant.
White is a costly gamble that shows Les Snead and Sean McVay are still fully committed to winning a Super Bowl in 2024, even in the aftermath of Aaron Donald’s retirement.
Contract restructuring would only strengthen the “all-in” campaign.
It looks like the Rams camp will be dominated by rookies for another season. Nearly forty rookies were on the Los Angeles roster going into the 2023 season, and Snead will need to bring in additional players at the lowest possible cost. Naturally, the top-51 contracts are important, and if the Rams don’t trade down, one of those players will need to be the team’s first-round selection. Rookies are not exempt, and the 19th overall pick has a $2.7 million cap cost. That comes up slightly short of Michael Hoecht’s Tuesday payout of $3 million.
Any needs that the Rams currently have on their roster will, for the most part, be satisfied by players already on the team, rookies, or inexpensive veteran free agents. That implies that nearly everyone would be expected to start, including Demarcus Robinson, Bobby Brown, Hoecht, Christian Rozeboom, Russ Yeast, Quentin Lake, and A.J. Jackson.
The Rams could restructure the contracts of Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford to try to add more veterans through free agency or trade, but it would be obvious that the team is going “all-in” if more cap commitments were made to players who will be 37 and 32 in 2025.
On the one hand, this is comparable to how the Rams started the 2023 campaign and how Los Angeles shocked everyone by qualifying for the playoffs. However, the Rams’ first-round loss indicates that, in order to pull off a “all-in” effort, the squad would presumably have improved from the previous campaign.
If the Rams stick to their identical game plan but without Aaron Donald, will they be better than they were the previous season? It’s possible that the offense will be so strong that Los Angeles surprises everyone once more and goes deep into the playoffs, which further suggests that signing White is the Rams’ way of expressing their belief that they will win the Super Bowl.
Is there another way the Rams might have spent this money?
In order to balance their budget between the present and the future, the Rams should have signed Tre’Davious White to a one-year, $8 million contract rather than dividing the money among several players who were either younger or healthier, if not both. With “up to $10 million,” the Rams could have fielded a number of free agent defensive players in competition to start. For the same amount of cap room, the team could have signed CB Isaiah Oliver and DE Marcus Davenport, for instance. Although White was always superior to Davenport and Oliver, the same could have been said of Ahkello Witherspoon and Kevin Dotson the previous year.
And it might be considered a wise all-in signing if White has a fantastic season in 2024. Bobby Wagner, on the other hand, was a terrific addition to the club in 2022, but his arrival had little effect on the campaign due to other circumstances. The team must still win in order to go all-in, much like it did with the “all-in” deal for Matthew Stafford by Los Angeles in 2021.
Next, what will the Rams do?
Restructure contracts and include more picks.
The Rams are tied for the most draft picks in the NFL with 11, but the roster and draft board might set Snead up well to move down and select 13 or 14 rookies once more, which is what I predict he will do. I think Snead will want to replicate L.A.’s successful selection of 14 players last year, which allowed them to select Puka Nacua when they might have had the chance with a lower pick. Even if it means going back to the second round, Snead might be content to trade down once or twice given how well youngsters Steve Avila, Kobie Turner, and Byron Young are performing.
The Rams are also able to search for a dozen or more inexpensive players to retain on the roster since they have so many draft picks.
In order to create more cap space, I would also anticipate the Rams to restructure one or two of those contracts I listed. After that, they might still sign a big-name player.
Draft Needs
I think Snead could draft a receiver with an early enough pick to think he could compete to start over Demarcus Robinson in Week 1; a defensive end to compete with Desjuan Johnson and Larrell Murchison; a linebacker in the third round to compete with Rozeboom; a safety in the fourth or fifth round to compete next to Kamren Curl; and a kicker in the sixth or seventh round with a draft pick he adds in trading down in order to get the most out of their roster this season.
Cap space remaining
The answer is not much, even though we don’t yet have the official figures. Less than $10 million, and possibly even less than that amount once White’s contract specifics are revealed. The Rams’ plans for filling out their roster are more important than the actual number. Given the inclusion of nearly thirty rookies the following month, it appears that this is almost final.