The salary cap looms as the Los Angeles Rams are shaping their roster in preparation for the 2024 season.
The NFL salary cap for each team in 2024 is $255.4 million. The salary cap limits the “amount of money that a team can spend on players’ salaries.”
Entering his twelfth season as general manager for the Rams, Les Snead has a hold on the team’s purse strings. He “partners with Head Coach Sean McVay to direct all personnel decisions for the club.”
For the Rams, the vast majority of their salary cap space is consumed by payments slated to be made to players on their offense.
Breakdown of Rams Salary Cap Hits
According to Spotrac.com, which features an online sports compilation of team payrolls, salary cap breakdowns, and player contracts, the Rams are spending 61.58% of their available cap dollars in 2024 on offensive players and 21.34% of available cap dollars on defensive players. Slightly over one percent is earmarked for special teams.
Matthew Stafford’s contract results in the fourth largest cap hit ($49.5 million) in the NFL in 2024.
An NFL salary “cap hit” is the amount of money from a player’s contract that is counted toward a team’s salary cap in that particular year. In other words, it is the amount of money a player’s contract takes up in the team’s annual salary cap.
Before Aaron Donald’s retirement, his salary was slated to represent the eleventh largest cap hit ($31.17 million) in the NFL.
Just a couple days before Donald’s retirement, Jason Fitzgerald, founder of the website OverTheCap.com, tweeted out the following breakdown of the NFL’s largest cap hits in 2024:
The #Chargers have four of the top 12 cap hits in the entire NFL. pic.twitter.com/kapmx9prLX
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 13, 2024
Of course, Donald’s retirement alters the amount of the cap hit allocated to him.
Cooper Kupp is up in the neighborhood of the players listed above. The cap hit for him in 2024 is $29.78 million. Being named Offensive Player of the Year pays dividends!
Below, figures are set forth pertaining to the Rams’ spending on offense, followed by a separate presentation of the team’s spending on defense.
Spending on Offense
On offense, the Rams are spending more than every team in the NFL other than the Cleveland Browns.
Most expensive offenses in 2024:
1. $188.8M – Browns
2. $178.1M – Rams
3. $158.3M – Cowboys
4. $152.8M – Chiefs
5. $151.1M – Broncos
6. $148.5M – Giants
7. $146.5M – Cardinals
8. $141.6M – Falcons
9. $138.5M – 49ers
10. $135.9M – Colts
11. $135.2M – Panthers
12. $133.0M – Saints…— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 22, 2024
The current top ten base salaries for Rams players in 2024 are as follows:
| Player | Position | Base Salary |
| Matthew Stafford | QB | $31,000,000.00 |
| Cooper Kupp | WR | $15,000,000.00 |
| Jonah Jackson | G | $ 8,000,000.00 |
| Kevin Dotson | G | $ 7,000,000.00 |
| Rob Havenstein | RT | $ 6,500,000.00 |
| Joseph Noteboom | T | $ 5,000,000.00 |
| Alaric Jackson | T | $ 4,890,000.00 |
| Tyler Higbee | TE | $ 3,000,000.00 |
| Demarcus Robinson | WR | $ 2,500,000.00 |
| Colby Parkinson | TE | $ 1,500,000.00 |
Base salary alone does not make up the entire cap hit a team takes for a given player. For example, while Stafford’s base salary in 2024 is $31 million, the Rams take a $49.5 million cap hit for him. The difference between base salary and cap hit is attributable to factors such as prorated signing bonuses and roster bonuses. Stafford’s prorated bonus for 2024 is $18.5 million.
Spending on Defense
In sharp contrast to the offense, the Rams are spending less on defense than every team in the NFL. In fact, they are spending $14.4 million less on defense than every other team in the league.
The Rams also spent less than every other team on defense during the 2023 season.
Here are the Rams top ten 2024 base salaries for defensive players.
| Player | Position | Base Salary |
| Karmen “Kam” Curl | S | $ 4,375,000.00 |
| Darious Williams | CB | $ 3,500,000.00 |
| Ernest Jones IV | LB | $ 3,116,000.00 |
| Christian Rozeboom | LB | $ 3,000,000.00 |
| Michael Hoecht | OLB | $ 2,985,000.00 |
| Bobby Brown III | NT | $ 1,055,000.00 |
| Byron Young | OLB | $ 1,002,576.00 |
| Kobie Turner | NT | $ 995,067.00 |
| Derion Kendrick | CB | $ 985,000.00 |
| Quentin Lake | S | $ 985,000.00 |
It is not yet clear exactly what cap hits the Rams will take as a result of recently signing Kam Curl and re-signing Christian Rozeboom.
Presumably, the Rams will use their first round pick (No. 19 overall) in the upcoming NFL Draft to select a defensive player. As mandated by NFL rules and regulations, that player will get a four-year deal, with an annual salary in the neighborhood of $4½ million.
The highest paid defensive player in the league right now is Nick Bosa. The San Francisco 49ers defensive end, who was named 2022 Defensive Player of the Year, has an average salary of $34 million.
The total salary cap liability for the Rams attributable to the team’s defense in 2024 is just under $56 million. Bosa makes more than half that on his own!
Remaining Cap Space for the Rams
Out of the $255.4 million cap space available for 2024, the Rams currently (as of March 22, 2024) have approximately $20.75 million remaining. Thus, they have consumed slightly less than 92% of their total salary cap space. Absent trades and/or restructuring of deals, the Rams have limited remaining wiggle room.
For more related sports news, focused primarily on the USC Trojans and Los Angeles Rams, follow me at @vshjah_Victor.
