The St. Louis Rams finished the 2014 season at a disappointing 6-10. They did so with their backup, Shaun Hill, and his backup, Austin Davis, playing the whole season after their original starter, Sam Bradford, hurt his knee in the preseason. It became abundantly clear that the Rams need to spend this offseason trying to find Bradford’s replacement. That is their most glaring need but they have more than that they will spend this offseason trying to fix. The two ways they’ll address these problems: free agency and the draft.
As I said before, their biggest and most glaring need is at the quarterback position. With Bradford missing so much time due to injuries throughout his short career, there is no way the Rams can rely on him being healthy moving forward. Another factor in whether Bradford returns to St. Louis or not is his contract situation. If he plays in 2015 the Rams will have to pay him a base salary of almost $13 million and a cap number of over $16 million. If the Rams decide to cut him they will have a cap savings of $13 million and only $3.5 million in dead money. It makes a ton of sense to just cut their losses and move on.
Once they decide to move on from Bradford they will have two options for filling that void. They can either look for a replacement via free agency or drafting his replacement. In free agency there won’t be many options; Jake Locker, Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Mark Sanchez, Matt Flynn, and Ryan Mallett are the best options and outside of Mallett those aren’t very viable. The draft is their best option and there isn’t a lot of talent at the position outside of the top two quarterbacks, Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston. There’s a chance that one of them, especially Winston due to his off the field issues, falls to them in the draft and if they do the Rams might very well make the move. The Rams would love to land one of these two quarterbacks but if they don’t they’ll likely have to wait till a later round to take a shot at a quarterback.
Their next biggest need is in their secondary. They could address this need via free agency but even after they cut Bradford they won’t have an awful lot of cap space. If they look towards free agency to address many needs they will look for guys who have talent but may be coming off a bad year therefore willing to take less than market value for a year or two on a prove it deal. Some free agent options they might consider are Bradley Fletcher, Perrish Cox, or Rashean Mathis. If they decide to address this need via the draft they will look at guys like Trae Waynes, PJ Williams, or Marcus Peters in the first round. If they don’t feel the value is there (which I don’t think it is for as early of a pick as they have) they can address it in the later rounds. The cornerback position isn’t particularly top heavy in this draft but there’s a lot of good mid-range talent that can contribute to a lot of teams right away.
Another need is at the wide receiver position. Their big bodied wide receiver Kenny Britt will be a free agent and probably won’t be brought back for another season. There are some major names going into free agency at this position (Randall Cobb, Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant) but, as I said before, the Rams won’t be able to afford any names like this. Luckily for the Rams, this wide receiver class in the draft is another very deep one. If they decide to use their first round pick on one they’ll likely go after a guy like Jaelen Strong from Arizona State. Strong is a big wide receiver with very strong hands, good speed, and solid route running. He would compliment the receivers they already have on the roster very well.
The Rams have a lot of work to do this offseason and I expect them to start the leg work very soon, which would be creating cap space by restructuring contracts. Once the new league year starts I expect they will cut a player or two and bringing in free agents for workouts. Their coaching staff and front office is very smart and will likely make some good, smart moves. Despite not much cap space look for the Rams to be major players during the whole offseason process of free agency, draft, etc.