News that the NFL bumped the salary cap
up $10 million, to $133 million, came as very good news to the Rams,
who had about $500,000 of room under the old cap. The "found
money" affords them a much better chance to splash around in the
free agent pool in 2014. It also means their hand isn't forced this
offseason to tear down their offensive line. If they decide to, they
can afford to keep Harvey Dahl and Scott Wells and still make a
competitive offer to unrestricted free agent Rodger Saffold. Dahl's
and Wells' health records may still lead to a euphemistic "roster
move" or two in the coming days, but not having to pull up every
stake and start over up front could be huge for the Ram offense in
2014, too. The Rams increased their cap room further Wednesday by
cutting Cortland Finnegan, a move that overthecap.com indicates puts
them at $11.3 million under the cap.
Of course, every team got that $10
million to play with, a lot of teams were already well under the cap,
and more teams than ever focus on re-signing their own free agents
and rebuilding through the draft, which leaves a whole lotta money
chasing a pretty thin market at most positions. And even though
there's no Lombardi Trophy to be won in March, there will be a lot of
competition to try anyway. RamView will try to find the Rams some
bargains, but I think it would be wrong to expect them to have a very
busy free-agency period.
Illustrating the bare free agency
cupboard, allow me to present the 2014 UFA QBs:
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| USA Today |
Top 10 UFA QBs:
1 – Michael
Vick. Might be the most proven commodity here. Needs to take better
care of the ball (always has) but, turning 34 this season, still
capable of starting for somebody for a couple of years, still mobile
enough to help out a team that may not have the best of offensive
lines.
2 – Matt Cassel.
3,000-yard passer if you get him protection. Disaster if you don't.
3 - Josh McCown.
Coming off his best season as a pro at age 34, 13 TDs vs. 1 INT in 8
games. Was it a fluke?
4 - Josh Freeman.
Young talent who deserves a better chance to redeem himself for a
disappointing 2012 than he got in 2013. Raiders are believed to be
very interested.
5 - Kellen
Clemens. Solid game manager last season. Heads the line of QBs who
top out as emergency starters at best.
6 - Chad Henne.
Near his career high with over 3,200 yards last year and is just 28.
Still throws more INTs than TDs, though. (re-signed by Jagwires, 3/8)
7 - Rex Grossman.
Veteran QB with a lot of starting experience and a good arm should be
a dependable backup for somebody.
8 - Shaun Hill.
The soft-tossing 34-year-old just has a knack for producing a big
game or two off the bench.
9 - Matt Flynn.
Assumes you get him in the right system, which appears to be Green
Bay's. And only Green Bay's.
10 - Luke McCown, see next.
Sleepers: There
aren't sleepers outside of the top ten as much as there are zombies.
But if Josh McCown could pull it off last year, why not brother Luke?
I'll push Luke again this year as a strong-armed, mobile QB. Backing
up Matt Ryan and Drew Brees the last two seasons didn't exactly lead
to a lot of snaps for him.
Wild cards:
Though I wonder what they're waiting for, the Texans hadn't cut Matt
Schaub at the time of this post. Despite his epic 2014 meltdown and
predilection for pick-sixes, he'll shoot to the top of the list once
he's cut loose, probably to be the transitional starter for the team
that drafts Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater or Blake Bortles.
Which, of course, may be Houston.
Tag you're it: no
QBs were franchise tagged.
Out of the running: Jay
Cutler (re-signed with Bears); Jordan Palmer (went into coaching),
Tim Tebow (SEC Network).
Voting present: Tarvaris Jackson, Dan Orlovsky, Brady Quinn, Curtis Painter,
Colt McCoy, Derek Anderson, Charlie Whitehurst, David Garrard, Rusty
Smith, Jimmy Clausen, Seneca Wallace
The doctor will see you now:
Brady Quinn, who must have hurt his back signing his contract with
the Rams in October and never made it to a practice to my knowledge,
is coming off surgery but is supposed to be ready for training camp.
Gawd no: RamView's
bottom-ranked UFA QB, Seneca Wallace, is 33, coming off groin
surgery, and was so bad in Green Bay last season you have to believe
he is done.
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| Sports Illustrated |
RamView’s moves: Well, you can
see the lack of quality in this free-agent QB class for yourself,
making it all the more important in my eyes that the Rams get Clemens
locked up for 2014. With Bradford's injury history, you have to
assume he's going to miss multiple games, and Clemens was good enough
to hold serve, and then some, last season. Laugh, but a QB who can
come off the bench and play as well as Clemens did the last 9 weeks
of 2013 is pretty valuable to keep around. Austin Davis' flop in 2013
leaves the Rams needing a young QB to groom as a potential starter,
but I'm not looking until day 3 of the draft, where Logan Thomas or
Dustin Vaughan are potential value picks.
Shoot the moon: If
you cut Finnegan AND Bradford, you'd have about $20 million of cap
space to put talent around Johnny Football. Just
saying.
Prediction: Bradford
won't get any serious competition until 2015, and won't then if he
has the season he's supposed
to
have this year. It also doesn't sound like his torn ACL will force
the Rams to draft a QB early or pick up an additional UFA QB out of
necessity. David Fales (San Jose State) would fill a lot of the bill
if they're looking for a day 3 pick well-suited to be an emergency QB
out of the gate. Clemens should return as Bradford's main backup.
-$-
Free agent list from OverTheCap.com
and Rotoworld... any players missing or wrongly listed as UFAs, feel
free to blame them!
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