Rams keep surrendering leverage to Jalen Ramsey

Jaxson De Ville

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Mar 19, 2019
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The Rams have had some on-field success in recent years. Off the field, they’ve struggled to handle their business in an ideal way, doing contracts they shouldn’t have done (with Todd Gurley, Jared Goff, Brandin Cooks) and failing to do contracts they should have done.

Into the latter category falls defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who had to wait far too long for his financial reward (and who has more than lived up to it), and cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The Rams gave the Jaguars two first-round picks and a fourth-round pick without securing a long-term commitment from Ramsey. This instantly gave Ramsey extra leverage in the inevitable negotiations on a new deal, since the Rams won’t want to see the product of their 2019 all-in impulse buy walk away in free agency.

With Ramsey already having all the leverage, coach Sean McVay gave Ramsey even more of it on Tuesday, acknowledging that Ramsey “could reset the cornerback market.” While that may indeed be true, it’s the kind of statement that Ramsey’s agent will use to not just reset the market but to push the bar as high as he possibly can.

On one hand, it doesn’t really matter, because the draft capital already gives Ramsey so much leverage that nothing McVay says will change it. On the other hand, it’s an example of McVay’s tendency to take the good-cop routine a bit too far, creating a sense that every guy is “my guy” until he’s not, abruptly discarding players like Gurley or Cooks or Clay Matthews. Throw in the fact that both Gurley and Matthews believe the team has stiffed them out of payments their contracts promised, and the Rams are dancing dangerously close to the line that separates dysfunctional franchises from the contenders.

McVay remains one of the best coaches in the league, but there’s a sense that the rest of the NFL quickly has caught up with him. As he gets older and secures more experience, McVay will need to ensure that the team does a better job of exercising restraint when needed, and of writing big checks to only the right players at precisely the right time.
 
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