[aeneas1]

Rams are $28M over with Goff counting for $34.6M. Trade him and his number goes down to the $22.2M, so they save $12.4M. That gets the cap number to -$15.6M.

The $33M number for Stafford is what he'd cost Detroit. Traded before 3/21/21, his cap number would be $20M for the new team. That would put the Rams at -$35.6M. (If the Lions pay the $10M roster bonus he's due on 3/21/21, and then trade him, his cap number would only be $10M. But they aren't eating $10M.)

So $22.2M for Goff and $20M for Stafford, we'd be using $42.2M on QB, up $7.6M from having Goff on the roster. That same figure is what gets added to the cap deficit for the -$35.6M above.

Current situation is kind of bad enough...-$28M with only Whit, Brockers, and Hav as options to release and save money ($5-6M apiece). That opens up more holes and still leaves us short. There'll be significant restructures to the Goff, Donald, or Ramsey contracts, I'd imagine. Hard to see getting far enough over the cap to sign really anyone significant, but they probably have some ways. And Stafford would add less than $8M, so it's well within in the realm of possibility.

good stuff, so i was off by $13m, they're currently $28m over, so a stafford/goff swap would bump it to $36m over not $49m, not exactly stuff to get excited about...

that said, i have no idea why the lions would want to take on a top 10 qb cap hit in 2021, and that includes keeping stafford and his $33m cap hit.... they're currently $2m under the cap, have the 7th pick in the draft, and are seemingly going nowhere (in 2020 they ranked 21st in offensive points scored and dead last in offensive points allowed)... why not simply deal stafford for some picks, free up an additional $33m in cap space, hang onto chase daniel, and get a qb and his rookie contract in the draft, even trade up using some of the picks they'd get for stafford?

in fact i don't know why any team that was bad enough to be in the top 12 or so of the 2021 draft would want to take on a a big qb contract in a trade, unless we're talking watson, or possibly rodgers, instead just get a guy in the draft and work on rebuilding your team.

[majik]

Because outside of Rams world, Goff may be viewed much differently. Perhaps they view Goff as a guy who took a team to the Super Bowl who has had two down seasons due to the lack of a competent OL. Despite the fantasy of PFF rankings, DCs know the real quality of an OL and word is out around the NFL that the Rams, especially the interior, is lacking. Look at Center, Austin Blythe was a FA last year, did the Rams have to fight off other teams last year to bring him back? He got a whopping $3M from his own team on a one year deal.

Goff is only 26 and is being paid what an NFL QB gets paid who is not on a rookie contract. A team like the Colts, with plenty of cap space that is a Super Biel contender with a legitimate starting QB, might jump at Goff because Frank Reich knows that Goff is better than Jacoby Brissett despite the fact that Brissett is more mobile unlike a certain Boy Wonder coach who seems to have developed an infatuation with lesser talented but mobile QBs that can escape from the defensive pressure his porous OL cannot stop before 2-Mississippi on obvious passing downs.

[PARAM]

On this Covid Cap for 2021, isn't every team in some degree of distress? Sure there are teams under the cap but there will be a ton of free agents with no clear destination if their asking price isn't VERY reasonable. And with the Covid Cap is it really a good time to roll the dice at QB?

I keep hearing "maybe the rest of the NFL's opinion of Goff is higher than the Rams". Maybe that's right or maybe the Rams opinion is just as high. This is such an ODD situation.

If reasonable observations indicate he had a down year (despite improvements in some areas) and most believe there were some reasons not named Jared Goff for that, what is all this about? Personality conflicts? Seems weird for a low key guy like Goff.

It's certainly strange and everybody in the media espousing these scenarios knows they're not going to be proven right or wrong for 6 weeks or more. But more important than speculation, anything McVay or Snead say is in the same catagory.

Every year we know you can't believe most things you hear leading up to the draft, so maybe this year it's started a bit early?

Too weird to get a handle on anything concrete

[sloramfan]

....

i don't know about the rest of you, but if i were the rams, this is not a gamble i would want to be involved in...

something's cooking, and i still can't smell it...

how do you take a 2 year, pro bowl QB, decimate the o-line, then blame him for failure...

now that's my take, and as i've continuously pounded the goff haters with the "we don't know because we aren't really a part of the team, and aren't in the film room hour upon hour each day"...

(in the third person).. well slo, what's good for the goose, is good for you too... you don't really know what the rams are thinking...

and i don't know...

i do know this... if the rams trade goff, i'll be rooting just as hard as ever for whomever is behind center.. it's what i am.. a rams fan.. till death do us part, and beyond...

and i'll also add, that if they trade goff, and by week 9 we're looking hard at the next years draft, ya, i'll be disappointed, but i won't stop rooting... however, i may be more cranky than usual...

i agree with 69, fix the o-line, grab a burner wr, and we go back to having a pro-bowl starter at QB...the regression was not QB, it was the line IMHO...

go rams

slo

[AltiTude Ram]

https://www.si.com/nfl/packers/news/nfl ... -after-all

NFL Salary Cap Might Not Crash After All

With 14 teams, including the Green Bay Packers, over the COVID-impacted salary cap, there is a belief that a “capocalypse” can be avoided.

BILL HUBERJAN 26, 2021

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Maybe there won’t be a “capocalypse” after all.

With COVID leaving most stadiums empty or nearly empty in 2020, the resulting decline in revenue is expected to take a significant bite out of the salary cap in 2021. In 2020, teams played under a salary cap of $198.2 million. The cap has risen by at least $10 million for seven consecutive seasons. However, with significantly decreased revenue at the team level, the projection for next season is $176 million. According to OverTheCap.com, 14 teams are over that figure.

The Green Bay Packers are among those teams. After reaching the NFC Championship Game for a second consecutive season, they are a projected $32.1 million over the cap, according to OTC. That’s nothing. The New Orleans Saints are $112.2 million over the cap. And good luck to the new coaches in Philadelphia and Atlanta, which are $53.5 million and $42.3 million over the cap, respectively.

“It’s going to be a massacre,” one agent said.

“It’s going to be star money and young money and nothing in between,” another said, with the expectation that the midpriced veteran would go extinct as teams try to fill a roster around its high-priced stars.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. And, ultimately, maybe it won’t.

Multiple agents told Packer Central that they expect the owners and players union to agree to borrow against future caps to “smooth over” the difference between the potential for a dramatically decreased cap in 2021 and dramatically increased caps in the future.

Nothing is official and nothing is guaranteed, they cautioned, but their belief wasn't mere wishing and hoping.

This year, the league added two playoff teams, meaning two extra playoff games. Next year, the league schedule is expected to go from 16 games to 17 games. The Monday Night Football contract with ESPN expires after the 2021 season and contracts with CBS (for the AFC), Fox (for the NFC) and NBC (Sunday night) will expire after the 2022 season. Because the NFL is a ratings juggernaut, rights fees are expected to soar. According to Forbes, for instance, Fox’s $1.2 billion deal could almost double to $2 billion annually.

With boatloads of new money to become available, agents are cautiously optimistic there won’t be mass casualties with the average team being just $1.44 million beneath the $176 million projection.

“If I’m Jerry Jones, there’s no way I’m going to cut a number of veterans to get below the cap, knowing it’s going to go up once all the new money shows up,” one agent said.

Added another agent: “Look at you guys. You got to the championship game and now you’ve got to get rid of a bunch of players. You’re going to be right in the middle of this. Same with the Chiefs,” who are $26.2 million over the projected cap.

One agent said the expectation is the cap for 2020 will at least remain steady. Another agent said he expected it to touch $200 million. Another was planning for $195 million.


“Why go from $175 million for 2021 and then raise it to $220 million in 2022? That just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

In the eyes of one agent, the league owes it to the players, who played through a pandemic so the NFL could put its games on television.

“We just played 256 games and the playoffs. It wasn’t what was best for the players,” he said. “It was what’s best for our TV partners.”

All three agents said teams are using the potential for a dramatically decreased cap as a scare tactic to get their upcoming free agents to sign for less money than they might otherwise. One of those agents has told teams he would not negotiate on behalf of any of his players until the cap is officially set.

Officially, the NFL and NFLPA haven’t negotiated but the belief is talks have taken place behind the scenes. Usually, the cap teams will be working with is announced just before the start of the league-year in early March.

BY BILL HUBER

[St. Loser Fan]

Those of you that want Goff gone and the Rams to get Aaron Rodgers: do you want this off the field liability?



/jk

[snackdaddy]

Goff getting more motivated by the minute...

Maybe that is what they're trying to do? Some people suspected he didn't put in enough work during the offseason. Don't know if there is any truth to that. Or maybe they're no longer convinced he's the guy.

[AvengerRam]

Rams Have Opened Exploratory Trade Talks For Quarterbacks & Possibly Moving Jared Goff | NFLTradeRumors.co
https://nfltraderumors.co/rams-have-ope ... ared-goff/

While I have no doubt that the Rams are exploring options, it’s amazing how much of that article is based upon the writer’s own interpretations or parroting the interpretation of other commentators.

[Hacksaw]

This doesnt seem fair to team GMs who plan years ahead and make deals with players based on target cap numbers only to have that target change in an unnatural direction.

Saint over 112 M? Wow !

So what is the penalty for being over the NFL cap? NBA fines teams a % of their overage. Some teams choose to pay it. What about he NFL?
If NFL teams have to comply, then NFL rosters could look very different next year.

@Indrid Cold dialed in our situation and it doesn't appear there is a lot it if money in reserve to afford top interior OL players and that game changer WR. At least w/o cutting some other guys in what might be deeper units like DB / WR.

I don't want to regress but I dislike money mismanagement. I believe the Rams went too hard at a title and to maintain a quality product to get the ball rolling here, back in LA. Recapture the fans.. Unfortunately a couple of their larger deals went south as those players declined suddenly. That and a surprize cap reduction might be a death blow for us Rams fans (if not most over the cap teams) for next season.

If the Rams stay solid through all this, McSnead is going to earn their paycheck this off season.

[ziggy]

Just a quick note on the cap. I bet it isn’t going down that much. There’s a lot of talk to bring down the cap to give owners leverage right now.

HOWEVER, the cap is established by the owners. Given that it seems HALF the teams are in qb turmoil and the cap drives a lot of that. They are not going to shoot themselves in the foot.

Expect a lot of cap drama until the QBs salaries get locked in. Then miraculously, the cap will be ‘normal.’ Not up, but I expect closer to 2 than the 1.75 that’s been spread around.