The Los Angeles Rams officially traded receiver Allen Robinson to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday after a disappointing first year in the City of Angels.
The Rams only received a seventh-round pick (No. 234) in exchange for Robinson and another seventh-round pick (No. 251). However, a strong return was never the reason why the Rams wanted to trade Robinson. Instead, they wanted to get out of the three-year, $46.5 million contract they signed him to last offseason. They got out of the contract, but unfortunately, they didn't get the financial flexibility they were looking for.
After trading Robinson, Los Angeles took on a massive dead cap hit of $21.45 million. It would be one thing if this was just an isolated issue, but this is part of a much larger problem.
According to Spotrac, the Rams are now paying over $72 million in dead money this season, nearly a third of their total cap space. In addition to Robinson's aforementioned cap hit, $19.6 million of that dead money comes from Jalen Ramsey and another $19 million comes from Leonard Floyd. Bobby Wagner, Andrew Whitworth, and A'Shawn Robinson account for another $11 million combined, while 17 other players carry hits of $250,000 or less.
The Rams do have just over $10 million in cap space, but even that is deceiving. Los Angeles has only 44 players under contract for 2023, by far the fewest in the league. Most of that cap space will also go towards signing the rookie class, leaving almost no room for other transactions.
Needless to say, the Rams have their work cut out for them when it comes to maneuvering around the salary cap.
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