Did the Rams land the steal of free agency?

Kamren Curl’s free agent contract appears pretty team-friendly for Rams

The details of the free agency deal between the Los Angeles Rams and safety Kamren Curl have been made public, and on the surface this appears to be one of the most favorable deals for a team so far this offseason. According to Over The Cap, the contract will pay Curl $9M over two years. The first year is mostly guaranteed at $4M versus a total cap hit of $4.3M. In year two these numbers move to $2M guaranteed and a cap charge of $4.7M.

The team at Over The Cap spends as much time as anyone that is not an NFL employee combing over contract details, and if they are impressed then Rams fans should be too.

Perhaps one factor that played into the Rams’ favor over free agency is the saturation of the safety market. Several big name veterans were released before the league’s legal tampering period and others were unable to secure deals before the bell rang to open the market. Xavier McKinney, Darnell Savage, Justin Simmons, Eddie Jackson, Kevin Byard, Geno Stone, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, CJ Gardner Johnson, Quandre Diggs, Jeremy Chinn, Jordan Fuller, Rayshawn Jenkins, Jordan Whitehead and more were all available.

The Rams landed on Curl, who has four seasons of starting experience and just turned 25 years old. He’s played nearly 3,500 snaps for the Washington Commanders over the last four years and made over 300 tackles, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF) tracking data.

LA’s secondary is somewhat of a work in progress, so we will see if they continue to add to this group ahead of next month’s NFL Draft. Who will start at safety next to Curl? Russ Yeast made nine starts last year, but those all came at the start of the season. John Johnson overtook his role over the back stretch after signing with the team late—Johnson is still available to be signed by the Rams or any team. Quentin Lake performed admirably in the slot, but does the team feel he fits best there or as a true safety? Maybe the team even expects Curl to take over at the defense’s “star” position, and Sean McVay hinted as such when discussing the signing.

Still, Curl has played a ton of football over the last four seasons in Washington and he brings a much-needed veteran presence to the back of a young Rams defense. He seems like one of the biggest bargains of the NFL’s free agency period so far.