NFL football fans love the combine. For good reasons: They love watching the drills, hearing the 40 times, and dreaming of adding several of the talented players to their favorite team’s roster. What the fans see is awesome. What they don’t see would be more amazing. For all the talk about what happens on the field, who runs the fastest, jumps the highest, and leaps tall buildings in a single bound, the real action in Indianapolis occurs off the field—in the bars, hotel rooms and lobbies. The conversations that are held between teams and agents, and teams and other teams which are kept confidential, make the action in Indy the biggest story.
Instead of watching the forties, the television cameras should have tailed the Rams' front office, because they were extremely busy once they arrived in the Hoosier state and have remained busy since. We all know the Rams are shopping wide receiver Allen Robinson in an attempt to get rid of the huge contract they signed last off-season. Now, the Rams know no team wants to absorb the $15.2 million of guaranteed money, so they are offering to pay some of the money to move him off their roster. It’s not uncommon for the Rams to move a player after they sign him to a huge contract. It has occurred multiple times, from Todd Gurley to Jared Goff to Brandon Cooks and Robert Woods.
In fact, behind the scenes, the Rams might be willing to do the same with quarterback Matthew Stafford, since they are faced with another huge salary cap problem because of the new contract given to Stafford last season. Stafford’s contract calls for an option bonus which will trigger another $57 million of guaranteed money—$26 million from the option bonus and $31 million from his base salary in 2024. And those guarantees are final. There is no escaping the payments unless the Rams make a move before the third day of the league year. What would you do? It’s easy to say stay the course, and use the famous line from Teddy in the great movie : “Pay that man his money.” But is it a wise move to invest $57 million of hard dollars into a player you are not sure can stay healthy? Or can play to a winning level? Are there any takers for Stafford? Probably not, but the Rams have been able to pull a rabbit out of a hat befor e, and teams desperate for a quarterback might look at the $57 million as a bargain for the next two seasons.