Why is our cap status so low?

[bruce4life]

Who are we still paying that is not currently with the rams?
I know Jackson and Long takes a pretty big chunk out of the cap along with Bulger and Holt and Pace...

[Alec22]

Bennet Glover Chavous, all guys that are old and done yet still with meaty contracts. add that to witherspoon, LL, jacksons new huge deal, bulger as top 5 qb money, long, pace, and holt, its amazing we have money to spend at all.

[bruce4life]

Little restructured last season to stay with the team. Glover is done which will help a little with the cap along with Chavous being cut... That'll be what about 5.2 million more? Does this 8 million cap status also entail the players coming off the books for the upcoming season?

[Nick]

From what I can gather, here are some cap charges for 2009...

Holt: $10.2 million
Pace: $9 million
Bulger: $8.5 million
Little: $7.6 million
Jackson: At least $7.4 million I believe
Bell: At least $5.1 million I believe
Bennett: $5.05 million
Chavous: $2.8 million

That totals $55.65 million, meaning eight of 53 active roster players make up 45% of the approximate total cap for 2009.

[AvengerRam]

The real question is how much can the Rams trim off the cap number so they can make some moves in FA.

[Shan the Ram Man]

I wish the Rams could cut some players without taking the Cap hit. Bell "G" all 280lbs of him, Bennett "WR" has done nothing yet, and Chavous "SS" old and slow for position.
Rookie OT Greco played better than Bell at the "G"position.
Bennett WR maybe 50 catches in 3 seasons.

[Mooselini]

We're gonna let Glover and Chavous go. I'm sure thats going to happen.

We may need to have Bulger, Bennett, Holt and Pace reconstruct their contracts.

[Varg6]

From what I can gather, here are some cap charges for 2009...

Holt: $10.2 million
Pace: $9 million
Bulger: $8.5 million
Little: $7.6 million
Jackson: At least $7.4 million I believe
Bell: At least $5.1 million I believe
Bennett: $5.05 million
Chavous: $2.8 million

That totals $55.65 million, meaning eight of 53 active roster players make up 45% of the approximate total cap for 2009.

That just seems sloppy to me. We need a few of those guys to restructure. If I were them I'd do just about anything to start getting this team going in the right direction. It's not like they're going to be money deprived.

[Goldenfleece]

The team was making a point to sign its top players to long-term contracts. If that's right, our top 5 take up a third of our cap space. I think a lot of restructuring is in order. The only one on that list you could argue was performing up to the expectations that come with that kind of contract would be Jackson.

[Nick]

I wish the Rams could cut some players without taking the Cap hit. Bell "G" all 280lbs of him

The Rams aren't going to cut Bell a year after signing him to a six-year deal. Cap hit would be big.

We're gonna let Glover and Chavous go. I'm sure thats going to happen.

Glover isn't under contract in 2009.

[Spyederman]

I really don't think Holt wants to play for the Rams next season. I know he has bad knees but I find it hard to believe he fell off that much last season. Unfortunantly I think due to that poor season if we trade him we're not going to get much back. It would clear up some cap room though so I guess they need to figure out if they can do better with that money or is keeping Torry the better choice. As much as I would hate to see Torry go it won't be as bad as seeing Ike leave last year. If our ownership has any class at all they will resign Bruce for one day when he is set to end his career so he can retire as a Ram, which is the only way it should be.

[Bar-bq]

I really don't think Holt wants to play for the Rams next season. I know he has bad knees but I find it hard to believe he fell off that much last season. Unfortunantly I think due to that poor season if we trade him we're not going to get much back. It would clear up some cap room though so I guess they need to figure out if they can do better with that money or is keeping Torry the better choice.

Welcome aboard!

Holt will hopefully be asked to restructure his contract to shift around his guaranteed money, giving us a greater chance to land some contributing free agents and giving him a greater chance of having one last hurrah.

[Spyederman]

Thanks for the welcome, new member but life long Rams fan. I agree he may be asked along with others to restructure and hopefully he will. I still think Holt has some very good years left. Many of our offensive problems arise from the line which has been shuffled around so much the last few years. We have a pattern over the years of having good quarterbacks that start to take a pounding and get happy feet. They leave the Rams, get some protection and their confidence back and return to form. If somehow we can just stay semi healthy it's still a very talented offense with some nice talent outside at WR. Holt is a pro and a leader and beyond his talent would be great to have around for the young guys. He had a couple guys like that (Bruce and Faulk) to help guide him into the NFL and I hope he sticks around to do the same.

[SJacks039]

Restructuring contracts sounds good, but how many of those guys do you think would do it? Has there been a report saying the rams are going to do this?

[Nick]

Holt will hopefully be asked to restructure his contract to shift around his guaranteed money

He's in the final year of his contract. If we want to shift money around to try and lessen his cap charge, we have two options: (1) pay cut or (2) extension. Is he receptive to either of those? I really doubt he'd take a pay cut, and an extension with us is probably going to be worth less than what he'd get on the open market.

Has there been a report saying the rams are going to do this?

Not to my knowledge, but I'm sure they haven't ruled out approaching anyone at this point.