There aren’t any marquee players on the Rams’ list of pending free agents this year – certainly not in the realm of Von Miller and Odell Beckham Jr. But what they’re facing is the possibility of losing several starters in March when free agency begins.
There’s a total of eight players who started on offense or defense in Week 1 that will become free agents this offseason, along with three core special teams players. That’s 11 of the Rams’ 25 “starters” who will hit the market and it’s obvious that not all of them will be re-signed.
With limited cap space, the Rams will need to pick and choose who they want to bring back. When thinking about which free agents are the most important, it’s not easy to pin down the top choice. Some of the players who come to mind are Nick Scott, Greg Gaines, A’Shawn Robinson and Matt Gay. Others include Taylor Rapp, Coleman Shelton, Troy Hill, Brandon Powell, David Long Jr. and David Edwards.
If the Rams could only sign one pending free agent, who would it be? My vote would be for Gay, though Scott, Gaines and Robinson are all close behind. It really comes down to value and ease of replacement.
As we saw when Greg Zuerlein left, it wasn’t easy for the Rams to replace him. They cycled through kicker after kicker in 2020, trying the likes of Sam Sloman, Austin MacGinnis and Lirim Hajrullahu that summer. They gave Kai Forbath a shot during the season after Sloman struggled, too. Eventually, they struck gold with Gay.
Had Gay not become one of the NFL’s best kickers, the Rams might’ve endured the pain of endlessly searching for a reliable one like the Chargers, Vikings and Bears all have in recent years. He prevented that from happening and is truly one of the top players at his position.
Since landing in L.A., Gay has made 74 of his 80 field goal attempts, 95 of his 97 PATs and is a near-perfect 62-for-65 inside 40 yards. He’s even made 12 of 15 attempts from beyond 50.
There isn’t a kicker in the draft or free agency that will be an upgrade over Gay. Teams don’t let good kickers get away, and Gay is better than good.
This isn’t to say Gaines, Robinson or Scott will be easy to replace, but the Rams found ways to overcome injuries to Gaines and Robinson this past season. They had capable fill-ins for Hill, Long and Edwards, too.
Gay won’t cost the Rams a fortune in free agency and whatever they do pay him will be worth every penny. The gap between the highest-paid kicker (Justin Tucker, $6 million) and the 17th-highest-paid (Cairo Santos, $3 million) is only $3 million per year. Sure, it’s double, but even if the Rams pay Gay $5 million annually, it’s not going to handcuff them all offseason.
Gay should be a high priority for Los Angeles this spring because losing him over a few million dollars would be tough to overcome.
