You're Fired!

Written By: Anthony Bafaro

-Mr. Gibson, Mr. Trump
will see you now.

With free agency looming, the Rams started their house cleaning Monday by cutting some of the overpaid holdovers from the Devaney-Spagnuolo era.  Center Jason Brown, DT Justin Bannan, DE James Hall, CB Ron Bartell, LB David Nixon and WR Nick Miller were all informed the Rams would release them.  These moves, along with the Cowboys-Redskins donations, have the Rams staring at about $30 million in cap space.  Pencil in $7-$10 million for rookies and extensions for any serviceable players on the current roster, and they suddenly have $20 million to attack free agency with. 

One notable non-cut is OT Jason Smith.  His current contract still contains a lot of guaranteed money, but the team could have easily afforded to eat that next season if it thought he was no long viable.  Fisher is known for his ability to develop lineman, an attribute that allowed him to consistently field top-notch offensive lines despite never using a 1^st round pick on the position.  We’ve seen flashes of Smith’s road grading ability in the run game; hopefully the new staff can cook some of the still raw talent and help him shed his bust status.

What will the Rams do with the spare cash?  Well, they’re absolutely signing a starting CB and a starting DT.  There is no way Fisher is going into the season with with Justin King as a starter on the outside and there is no way any team in the league would rely on Darrell Scott and Gary Gibson to anchor the interior of its defensive line. 

If I had to guess, I’d say the merchandise department has already started printing Jason Jones jerseys.  Fisher drafted Jones in the 2^nd round of the 2008 draft.  Jones had a solid, and steadily ascending three year career as a DT before the Titans inexplicably moved him to DE in 2011.  As for the corners, I’m going back to the Titans for former Fisher bad boy Cortland Finnegan.  Finnegan—age 28—is arguably the best CB on the market.  With the Rams new found wealth, and the connection to Fisher, it’s a natural fit.

An interesting note on Finnegan, is that he’s suggested that he would like to be a package deal (are we in the NBA?) with free agent WR Vincent Jackson.  The notion of getting both of them seems almost surreal from a fan’s perspective, but it’s not completely out of the question.

I’ll bet silver to shoeshine that the Rams sign Jason Jones, and I’ll say the same about a high end CB.  Whether that CB is Finnegan may depend on how adjoined he is to Jackson.  Despite the need for playmakers, Fisher doesn’t have a history of splurging on WR’s, and the Rams may not want to give big money to someone with Jackson’s history of off-the-field-issues.  Additionally, with two 1^st round picks in 2013 and 2014 the Rams have the ammo to go up and get a WR the next time Andre Johnson or Calvin Johnson shows up.