Hunter's release gains the Rams $4 million against the salary cap, and as far as I'm aware, they were right on or slightly over the cap up until now, so let's say they're $4 million under the cap for now. That will become $11 million on the 12th when Steven Jackson voids his contract.
That's probably it for Hunter's time as a Ram. He was bad enough to get beaten out for a starting job by Barry Richardson, and never take it back, but he played well off the bench when called upon. I wouldn't mind having him back at a lower salary, but he'll get a better offer than that elsewhere, and the Rams have viable younger options, whether Joe Barksdale or a player from a very deep 2013 draft for offensive linemen. Best of luck to Wayne wherever he ends up.
The Rams don't have a lot of slack to get further under the cap, at least not without making things even worse down the line, which is decidedly not GM Kevin Demoff's m.o. Cutting Quintin Mikell would gain them another $3 million. I can see that happening, with a strong safety class in this year's draft, and Mikell, who did have a very good year in 2012, was a big Spagvaney signing, so Snead/Fisher may want their own guy. Cutting Harvey Dahl would get another quick $4 million but would be a terrible move. The most tempting pot of money would involve restructuring James Laurinaitis' contract; reportedly, $9.4 million of cap space could be freed up there without a lot of problem. Which, of course, I don't understand at all, because they just signed Laurinaitis last year; why wasn't that deal cap-friendly in the first place?
I can already say that the majority of RamView position previews for free agency are not going to be ready for Tuesday. Like most years, I'll write the majority of them up while pretending I was writing them on time. Nothing but the highest journalistic standards here at RamView.
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