Rams have the most players signed for 2025

In part thanks to drafting 32 prospects in the past three years, including 2024, the Los Angeles Rams have the most players signed for the 2025 season with 70. That’s four more than any other team, which is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 66 players signed for 2025.

What meaning does this have for the Rams?

The upside to having so many players on rookie contracts is that L.A. still has an estimated $34 million in cap space for next offseason. That number will change significantly, as most cap numbers will in the next nine months, but the Rams have an advantage in roster building thanks to having an inordinately high number of players on rookie contracts.

The key will be for those players to get better or keep playing well, whether that’s Puka Nacua, Kobie Turner, or Stetson Bennett.

The more they get back from the 2022, 2023, and 2024 draft classes, the less money that the Rams will need to spend to fill needs next year. The less money that the Rams spend on needs, the more that Les Snead and Sean McVay can spend on wants.

Rams 2025 free agents

The headliners are Ernest Jones and A.J. Jackson, but the Rams also signed Jimmy Garoppolo, Demarcus Robinson, and Tre’Davious White to one-year deals. If L.A. wants to retain any of those players, it will cost them some portion of that $34 million.

The Rams haven’t drafted any off-ball linebackers of note recently, so the replacement for Jones is probably an acquisition next year (free agency, trade, draft) or to simply keep Jones.

Rams 2025 cut candidates

Not all of the 70 players signed through 2025 will be on the roster in 12 months.

The Rams still have almost $10 million in cap space dedicated to Aaron Donald next year, plus $50.5 million to Matthew Stafford and almost $30 million to Cooper Kupp. I can’t say there are many if any “obvious” cut candidates, but evaluations on Kupp, Stafford, Rob Havenstein, and Darious Williams will be necessary. Of course, many of the cut candidates right now aren’t on veteran deals and aren’t high-profile starters.

Just consider the likes of players such as Ochaun Mathis, Desjuan Johnson, Jason Taylor, or KT Leveston as examples. How many of L.A.’s recent draft picks will make the 53-man roster? Most will make the practice squad, but there’s the possibility they could get picked up by another team. Or that the Rams will want to replace them with a waiver claim from another team.

Advantage: Rams

So far, so good in terms of drafting replacements to field a 90-man roster and 53-man roster under the salary cap while paying exorbitant amounts to a few stars. The Rams got what they needed out of the 2023 draft class, so it’s up to McVay and company to continue getting what they need out of L.A.’s cost-controlled players. That’s the advantage of having so many players signed for the future without having a need to cut any of them unless you want to.