Rams' Waive Derion Kendrick, Pave Path For Jalen Ramsey's Return

After being selected in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Kendrick played in 32 games before tearing his ACL last summer during training camp, forcing him to go on season ending injured reserve.

Kendrick was on the last year of his contract.

Those are the facts. Here's the reality. Despite all the positive words Sean McVay stated about Emmanuel Forbes, Ahkello Witherspoon, Shaun Jolly and other defensive backs, words that were true, the numbers are painting a clear picture.

As mentioned, Kendrick's departure frees up $3.4 million. According to Over The Cap, that would place the Rams at about $22 million in total cap space. Jalen Ramsey's current cap hit sits at $16.6 million.

No one can manage a team with $2 million in cap space entering a season. That's where the Rams would have been at had they acquired Ramsey before waiving Kendrick. Should the Rams acquire Ramsey now, they would have $5.4 million remaining. The Rams can work with that, even increasing their cap through a midseason restructuring of someone else's deal.

Sean McVay doesn't lie, but he never tells whole truths. No coach does. He flat-out rejected Jaire Alexander. He rejected adding any defensive back but made sure to specifically state Ramsey was a different story.

“No, I feel good about where we're at," stated Sean McVay two weeks ago when asked about adding to the secondary. "Obviously, Jalen's a unique deal, but I think we all feel this way in terms of the guys that have played."

This is what McVay said at OTAs earlier this week when asked about Alexander and Ramsey.

“We haven't had a lot of those discussions. There are so many layers to the Jalen conversation. Obviously, with (CB) Jaire (Alexander), a lot of respect for him as a player, haven’t talked about those types of things. Our main focus is… This will really represent our last OTA day so we've kind of just been focused on our group. (General Manager) Les (Snead) and I have had some dialogue and discussions as it relates to the Jalen thing, but there's really no news to report on. And with Jaire, nothing but respect for the player but I don't know if that's a direction that we would go.”

Perhaps the reason no discussions have taken place is because the Rams needed time to get their ducks in order.

I'm not saying the Rams waived Kendrick to bring in Ramsey or that Ramsey's arrival is imminent. I'm saying if there was a time to pull the trigger on a trade to bring the Super Bowl champion home, the window for the shot just opened.

Remember, McVay closed the door on every defensive back except for one. That wasn't an accident.