The NFL free agency period is finally underway and the league and its fans have seen plenty of player movement and trades. Several big name free agents have signed lucrative deals while presumed contending teams have added around the margins to produce a Super Bowl-caliber roster.
One of those contenders is the Los Angeles Rams who were arguably the busiest team in the offseason. The Rams added Pro Bowl cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib while also retaining their slot corner, Nickell Robey-Coleman.
Still, the biggest question going forward for Los Angeles is how much they are willing to pay their star defensive tackle, Aaron Donald. According to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN, general manager Les Snead said they have established a time frame to get a deal done:
Obviously, they represent other players, and coming into this weekend, they’re juggling a lot of things too,” Snead said from Rams headquarters on Wednesday, the first day of the new league year, shortly after introducing Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters as the team’s new starting cornerbacks. “We came up with a nice timeline that we’re going to work with, and we’ll get to work and try to hammer this thing out. The theme will always be that we want Aaron to be a Ram a long time.”
Donald sat out all of the offseason and preseason prior to the 2017 NFL season in hopes of getting a contract extension done then, but his representatives and Los Angeles’ front office could not agree to terms. However, hearing Snead say a timeline has been established is encouraging and shows that there has been some traction on a deal.
How much the Rams are willing to pay Donald will affect how they choose to spend during free agency. The team has been linked to players like wide receiver Terrelle Pryor, so it will be interesting to see who they manage to nab.
