Why the Rams are the team with the most to gain over the next year
If the Los Angeles Rams play their cards right, they could build the most talented, strongest, fastest, and one of the youngest rosters in the NFL thanks to a salary cap advantage that most people haven’t noticed yet. By raw numbers, the Rams are projected to have the fifth-most cap space in the NFL next year, but underneath the money they owe is an even more important number:
The Rams already have 46 players under contract for 2026 — before they’ve signed their 2025 rookie class — and that’s far more than other teams in the top-10 for salary cap next year.
In other words, while those teams have to pay a lot of players between now and 2026, the Rams don’t have as much work to do (nearly 20 more players already signed for 2026 than their counterparts) and therefore they will have more opportunities to add veteran talent than other teams.
Projections at OvertheCap.com show that while the Rams do have $215 million in cap spending for 2026, that’s only the ninth-most in the NFL and L.A. will bring that number down by next year:
Because Les Snead’s scouting department has done such a great job of finding talent in the draft over the past few years, the Rams have a roster that:
- Can compete for the Super Bowl in 2025
- Can afford to add even MORE talent in 2026
- Can afford to extend their best draft finds since 2023 (like Puka Nacua)
- Also has an extra first round pick in 2026!
The Rams roster featured 18 rookies at one time or another in 2024 and several of those players are vital pieces of the team next season, including Jared Verse, Braden Fiske, Kamren Kinchens, Beaux Limmer, Blake Corum, Omar Speights, Josh Wallace, Jaylen McCollough, Tyler Davis, Jordan Whittington, Josh Karty, and so on.
Go back to the 2023 rookie class and the Rams have cheap, cost-controlled starters like Puka, Kobie Turner, Byron Young, Steve Avila, and punter Ethan Evans.
Because L.A. has hit on so many cheap players who they actually want to keep for the foreseeable future, it means that the Rams have an overall cheap and young roster that is also talented. This has allowed the team to retain players like Matthew Stafford, while adding in the likes of Davante Adams.
Not only could the Rams win the Super Bowl as early as the 2025 season, but if Stafford feels ready to go for another round in 2026, the team will be in the best position possible to keep adding even more talent next offseason. And they have an extra first round pick!
Colin Cowherd says the Rams fleeced the Falcons by landing a 2026 1st-round pick for James Pearce Jr.
“I feel like LA took Atlanta to the cleaners, in a bad draft for the fifth best edge rusher” Do you agree?#RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/PDBDeiAkzA
— LAFB Network (@LAFBNetwork) April 27, 2025
The Rams do have some interesting free agency decisions to make in 2026:
- RT Rob Havenstein
- TE Tyler Higbee
- RB Kyren Williams
- WR Tutu Atwell
- S Quentin Lake
- S Kamren Curl
- CB Cobie Durant
But hardly anything prohibitive, plus the Rams have options to save more money by releasing certain players if they have to:
- CB Darious Williams $7.5m savings
- WR Davante Adams $14m savings
- C Coleman Shelton $3m savings
It’s all setting up for the Rams to be arguably the most dangerous team in the NFL over the next two seasons combined because they have so much more cap room to work with, an extra first round pick, a roster that almost defeated the Eagles in the playoffs last year, Matthew Stafford signed through 2026, enough money to keep all of their young talent, and the most aggressive GM in the league.
It’s not just that the Rams have cap space. It’s that the Rams have so many players already signed for cheap that they can be more aggressive in pursuing veteran help than any other team in the NFL.