Rams offseason plan part II: Who do you keep?

We know that Cooper Kupp is probably out, but who do the Rams keep in 2025?

The Los Angeles Rams are going to try and get back to the Super Bowl next season. Despite reports of parting with one of their all-time best players, that’s not the sign that the Rams are tanking. Far from it actually.

So how do the Rams have a Super Bowl quality offseason again?

In Part I — “trim the cap fat” — the first step was releasing Cooper Kupp with a post-June 1 designation for $15 million in immediate cap savings. This was a week ago and then on Tuesday, Kupp announced that the Rams are trying to trade him. If they can find a sucker, great. But most likely, L.A. will be forced to release Kupp and it is better to have the cap space now and push some of the commitment into 2026.

At the end of Part I, the Rams had about $60 million in cap space after parting with Kupp, Jonah Jackson, Darious Williams, and Derion Kendrick.

The next equation to solve is: “Who do you keep?”

Starting with Matthew Stafford.

Matthew Stafford – Restructure for $13 million saved

Moving on from Kupp is not waving the white flag. In fact, it is making the Rams better. But trading Stafford would signal to everyone that the Rams are going to make due with what they have and focus on 2026, potentially with a draft pick high enough to select Arch Manning or some other quarterback prospect in next year’s draft.

That’s not very Snead-like though, so instead the Rams double down on the 37-year-old Stafford and try to get a better team around him. This restructure — a term that confuses a lot of people as it is not a pay cut and usually doesn’t require the player’s permission — gets the Rams to around $75 million in cap space when combined with our other moves.

Free Agents (full list here)

KEEP

LT A.J. Jackson

Estimated Cost: 4 years, $56 million ($19 million per season)

The Rams kept Joe Noteboom of all people, why not a tackle who was much better than him? This is one of the hardest positions in the NFL to replace and so even if Jackson isn’t elite, he’s good enough. This puts Jackson between Jake Matthews and Taylor Decker as the league’s eighth-highest paid left tackle.

His 2025 cap hit would come in around $12 million, which leaves $73 million left to spend.

QB Jimmy Garoppolo

Estimated Cost: 1 year, $5 million

Stafford is 37 and Garoppolo will have now had a year under his belt to prepare with this team and these coaches. He signed a $3 million deal in 2024, so this is a slight bump from that. It doesn’t do anything to prevent the Rams from drafting a quarterback if they see one they like. This is just a necessary veteran insurance policy.

$68 million left.

WR Demarcus Robinson

Estimated Cost: 1 year, $5 million

Yeah, he had a career year in some respects — yards, touchdowns, yards per catch — but also a career-worst 48% catch rate. Robinson does seem to have a good on-field relationship with Stafford though. I don’t see him getting a lot in free agency and this would be a slight raise from what he made in 2024.

With Kupp out, Robinson just gives a little extra insurance. This puts the Rams around $63 million in cap space left. They could also always add an extra year or void years to any of these deals to get these cap hits even lower.

Don’t Keep

OLB Michael Hoecht

S John Johnson

CB Ahkello Witherspoon

LB Troy Reeder

LB Christian Rozeboom

WR Tutu Atwell

DT Neville Gallimore

WR Tyler Johnson

C Conor McDermott

NT Bobby Brown III

TE Hunter Long

DE Larrell Murchison

The whole idea of finding cap space is to get better players to upgrade certain positions. You can’t get new players if you keep the old ones. So even if some of these names are “dogs” who did good work, they aren’t the ones who will get the Rams back to the Super Bowl.

Where should the Rams spend that money? That’s in Part III.

Which moves here do you hate or love the most?