LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay called re-signing safety Lamarcus Joyner “a huge priority” and wouldn’t rule out the return of cornerback Trumaine Johnson, even though his team recently traded for an All-Pro corner in Marcus Peters.
Is there room for both underneath the salary cap?
The Rams are currently projected to have roughly $38 million in cap space if you account for Peters, according to OverTheCap.com. They have to allocate something in the neighborhood of $5 million for the draft, but can gain an extra $10 million if they cut ties with wide receiver Tavon Austin and inside linebacker Mark Barron. That would bring them to an estimate of roughly $43 million.
Retaining Joyner is the biggest priority. But bringing back wide receiver Sammy Watkins and slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman seemingly fall right underneath that. Then there are needs for starters at center, nose tackle, outside linebacker and, if Barron is cut, inside linebacker. The draft might only be able to fix one of those four, as the Rams have just one selection within the top 86. And then there’s All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who’s set to cost less than $7 million toward the salary cap but is looking to become the game’s highest-paid defensive player as soon as possible.
Johnson has spent the last two seasons playing under the franchise tag and is considered the game’s best available free agent cornerback, which could mean he commands a long-term contract worth something in the neighborhood of $13 million a year. It seems highly unlikely that he would return to the Rams, even though their No. 2 cornerback, Kayvon Webster, is recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon. But the team is not ruling it out.
McVay called the Peters acquisition — which won’t be processed until the start of the new league year on March 14 — “independent” of Johnson’s situation.
“We know what a good product Trumaine put out there last year,” McVay said in a phone conversation from the scouting combine in Indianapolis on Wednesday morning. “There’s a reason why he was a player that you used the franchise tag on the last two years. I do think he’ll be highly sought after in free agency, but in an ideal world, we would like to be able to get Trumaine back on our team. Whether that’s something that we’re able to figure out a solution to will be determined. I think there will be more clarity on that in the next few weeks.”
The Rams can now use the franchise tag on either Joyner or Watkins and have until March 6 to make a decision. The projected non-exclusive franchise tag is significantly cheaper for safeties (about $11 million, according to OverTheCap.com) than it is for receivers ($16 million). But the Rams have been trying to lock Joyner to a long-term deal dating to last offseason, then watched him make a superb transition from slot corner to do-it-all safety in 2017, gaining a deeper appreciation for his role in Wade Phillips’ defense.
The Rams will probably burn the franchise tag on Joyner if they sense they need it in order to keep him.
McVay let it be known how important he is to the Rams.
“Some of the things that he can do in Wade’s system makes him a huge priority,” McVay told reporters from the podium at the combine. “He’s a great person as well. He represents a lot of the things that are right about your locker room and kind of what you want guys to embody from a football character standpoint, the way they attack every single day. Lamarcus is someone that’s really important, and we’d like to get him re-signed, for sure.”
ESPN’s Jeff Legwold contributed to this report.