Rams get huge increase in 2024 salary cap space

The NFL increased its salary cap to $255M, giving the Rams almost $50 million to spend

The Los Angeles Rams will have even more money to spend in free agency. On Friday, the NFL announced a cap increase to $255M. This was an unprecedented $30M increase per club as a result of the full repayment during the Covid pandemic as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season.

Coming into the offseason, many were projecting the NFL salary cap to be around $240M-$245M. Nobody was expecting an increase to $255M.

With the increase, according to OverTheCap, the Rams are set to have $41.3M in effective cap space heading into free agency. This is before any contract restructures or other potential cap casualties. Los Angeles should have plenty of money to spend during free agency and replenish talent on their roster.

The increase in cap also locks in the franchise tag numbers. A notable one for the Rams will be the franchise tag number on the offensive line. In order to tag Kevin Dotson for example, it would cost the Rams $20.9M. It’s still much more likely that Les Snead remains patient here and finds out what Dotson’s value is on the free agent market. At that time, Snead and the Rams will be able to make an offer that they deem fair. The hope will be that the two sides are able to get a long-term deal done.

It will be interesting to see how the increase in salary cap effects free agency and the talent pool of players. The salary cap increase gives teams more money to re-sign their own players or use the franchise tag. It’s possible that ends up being bad news for the Rams who are looking to add a top edge rusher or other top player during the free agency period. At the same time, the increase could just mean that player contracts become more inflated.

Entering the offseason and free agency, the Rams look to be in a good spot. It will be up to Snead on how those resources and the salary cap gets allocated.