The Los Angeles Rams employ one of the most creative front offices when it comes to managing their salary cap.
The Rams are often able to shock the football masses when they sign players to lucrative deals, with most wondering how they’re able to stay under the cap. However, after handing out new deals to players like Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Jalen Ramsey, Los Angeles was slightly above the salary cap heading into the 2022 season.
However, they found an easy way to create some wiggle room after reworking Tyler Higbee’s contract, via Field Yates of ESPN:
The Rams converted $4.75M of TE Tyler Higbee's base salary into a signing bonus (while adding 3 void years), creating $3.8M in 2022 cap space.
More room for the Rams as the season begins.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 6, 2022
It was a simple move for the Rams to make that gives them some added flexibility to bring up players over the course of the season. The immediate thought is that this newfound room could be used in a potential deal for Odell Beckham Jr., who remains a free agent, though the timing on a contract would probably depend on when he’s close to returning after suffering a torn ACL in Super Bowl LVI.
Beckham is an obvious candidate for the Rams to utilize that extra money on, though there are other possibilities they could be looking out for. For example, the opposite outside linebacker spot from Leonard Floyd is a question mark so L.A. could look to address that need via free agency or trade if they so choose to.
Regardless, the Rams were able to maneuver themselves underneath the cap and are officially ready to go for Thursday Night Football against the Buffalo Bills.
