So nearly half the available cap space going to AD. 6 other starters free agents, plus numerous backups. Either they are resigned (not enough money), replacements signed (again, not enough money for good ones) or filled by backups and draft picks. But there aren't enough picks to do that, unless every pick is a hit. Which won't happen. So there will be mediocrities, without money to grab players to fill holes, or to grab good injury replacements. Oh, and not shown for 2020 but Brockers is a free agent (remember what happened after he got hurt in the playoff game?) and Goff will get a huge raise as a 5th-year player - and a #1 overall QB to boot. Plus Peters, etc.
A few extra million in cap space would make a huge difference in terms of throwing an extra half million here, a half million there to get players to sign with the Rams, instead of the Rams having to offer the minimum.
Plus, of course, giving in to AD after hard negotiations would mean that other agents would insist on negotiating in a similar way since the Rams would have shown that when push comes to shove in negotiations, they sign the player at his price. So there likely would be years of tough negotiations, with the fans saying "pay the man". Fortunately, Demoff in that radio interview made it sound like the Rams wouldn't give in for a bad contract.
