Rams working out kickers Wednesday, including Mason Crosby

[Allen2McVay]

I don't know but I still think it was a BIG mistake.

Kind of my entire point.

 

[den-the-coach]

In addition to veteran kickers Mason Crosby and Randy Bullock, the team also tried out Austin Seibert, Matthew Wright, and Tucker McCann.

FWIW Randy Bullock is one of the worst I have seen, I have never seen him make a game winning kick, but my lord, I have seen him miss a ton of kicks that could have been game winners. Hopefully Lucas Havrisik will put these guys in the rear view mirror.


View: https://x.com/pfrumors/status/1717361277721288757?s=20

 

[dieterbrock]

Gay’s 2023 cap hit is just $3M

Over 10 mill in dead cap though. Cap hits reach almost 7 mill in the next few seasons.
Thats crazy money for a kicker

 

[Londoner]

Thats crazy money for a kicker

But is it crazy money for someone who doesn’t lose you games?

 

[Tano]

Over 10 mill in dead cap though. Cap hits reach almost 7 mill in the next few seasons.
Thats crazy money for a kicker

No its not.

The CAP is going up so much in 2024 and 2025 from the new TV contract that this would easily be affordable especially since most of our players will be on their rookie contracts.

Of course - I know you love kickers about as much as you love cats.

 

[RamFanWA]

But is it crazy money for someone who doesn’t lose you games?

Exactly.

 

[RamFanWA]

Maybe place kickers are not valued as skill positions or something. However they can seriously affect the final score.

Another way to look at this - there is (approx) $10M in salaries on that field, for any given game.
Paying a kicker $7M/year, puts about 1/2M dollars/game on the field - and that person definitely can decide whether you win a game, or not.

I see this as good value, in relation to the total cost.

 

[dieterbrock]

But is it crazy money for someone who doesn’t lose you games?

We havent lost a game because of our kicker

 

[dieterbrock]

No its not.

The CAP is going up so much in 2024 and 2025 from the new TV contract that this would easily be affordable especially since most of our players will be on their rookie contracts.

Of course - I know you love kickers about as much as you love cats.

The team is/was cap strapped. We went thru the same song and dance with Zuerlein, and ended up with Gay. This is the way

 

[Tano]

The team is/was cap strapped. We went thru the same song and dance with Zuerlein, and ended up with Gay. This is the way

Zuerlein was not the same after hurting his back. It was best we moved on. I was definitely worried who we would get after Zuerlein but luckily we finally settled on Gay. Maybe we will again with this new guy but I don't have high hopes due to this accuracy issues in college.

And yes we were CAP strapped in 2023 but we could have done a minimum salary signing plus bonus to make it work. We are not CAP strapped for 2024 and 2025.

 

[dieterbrock]

Zuerlein was not the same after hurting his back. It was best we moved on. I was definitely worried who we would get after Zuerlein but luckily we finally settled on Gay. Maybe we will again with this new guy but I don't have high hopes due to this accuracy issues in college.

And yes we were CAP strapped in 2023 but we could have done a minimum salary signing plus bonus to make it work. We are not CAP strapped for 2024 and 2025.

The guys signed a 22.5 mill contract. He made 2.5 mill in 2022 and wasnt going to sign for low base.
Not tying up valuable cap space at the start of free agency allowed the Rams to make moves. They took cap hits to trade Allen Robinson and Jalen Ramsey. Its all such hindsight right now, folks are forgetting the moves they made.
If they couldnt trade ARob, maybe they dont draft Puka.. Who knows. Every action ha a reaction.
If the answer was just push the can down the road they would have
Heard this complaint with Z and Hekker, and the Rams survived just as they are surviving this

 

[blackbart]

We havent lost a game because of our kicker

We lost to the Steelers because Maher missed those kicks. Not only because of the points not put on the board but also because of the way it affected the game flow and momentum.

If he makes those kicks the rest of the game is different. And the likely hood of a win increases dramatically.



On Matt Gay, they made a bad choice to prioritize money elsewhere. Kickers put points up almost every game, that should be a building block that is not a cap casualty.

 

[RamFan503]

We havent lost a game because of our kicker

I would argue that he pretty much lost us that last game. missing the PAT and two makeable FGs that gave Pittsburgh great field position. That's roughly a potential of 17 points worth of difference in the game.

No one really knows but it certainly is a different game and likely a different outcome with those 2 FGs in our pocket and Pittsburgh having to score from the 25 after giving up a score.

 

[Tano]

The guys signed a 22.5 mill contract. He made 2.5 mill in 2022 and wasnt going to sign for low base.
Not tying up valuable cap space at the start of free agency allowed the Rams to make moves. They took cap hits to trade Allen Robinson and Jalen Ramsey. Its all such hindsight right now, folks are forgetting the moves they made.
If they couldnt trade ARob, maybe they dont draft Puka.. Who knows. Every action ha a reaction.
If the answer was just push the can down the road they would have
Heard this complaint with Z and Hekker, and the Rams survived just as they are surviving this

Yes I saw it but I think they could have made it work just like Indianapolis with a 3M cap hit. They might have had to restructure an addition contract to make it work but an extra 2M for this year shouldn't have been too difficult.

Plus I think he would have signed for less to stay with the Rams if they had tried to sign him before the end of last year.

 

[dieterbrock]

We lost to the Steelers because Maher missed those kicks. Not only because of the points not put on the board but also because of the way it affected the game flow and momentum.

If he makes those kicks the rest of the game is different. And the likely hood of a win increases dramatically.



On Matt Gay, they made a bad choice to prioritize money elsewhere. Kickers put points up almost every game, that should be a building block that is not a cap casualty.

Thats just not true
They lost because they couldnt stop the Steelers in the 4th Q, and couldnt move the ball themselves.
Blaming it on the kicker is pathetic

 

[Ram Ts]

Didn’t Gay miss a FG in our game? I guess he cost the Colts that game and gave it to us.

 

[FrantikRam]

Didn’t Gay miss a FG in our game? I guess he cost the Colts that game and gave it to us.

He did. Akers was the main whipping boy after the Bucs game, but had Stafford and Kupp not pulled that out, Gay's incredibly bizarre missed FG in the fourth quarter would have left a mark.

I was fine not paying him....we have an idea on how we use our cap space and it's tough to argue with the results overall. Remember....we found Gay BECAUSE we went through exactly what we're going through now.

 

[Allen2McVay]

Over 10 mill in dead cap though. Cap hits reach almost 7 mill in the next few seasons.
Thats crazy money for a kicker

He's one of the highest paid PKs. Average Annual Value (AAV) second only to Justin Tucker, and guaranteed-$ is 2nd or 3rd highest. $3M cap hit this year, doubling in 2024 and then reaching almost $7M in 2025 and 2026.

Definitely a lot for a Place-Kicker.

Not sure what the relevance is to the Dead-$ number you posted. It's accurate. The Colts would take a $10M Dead-$ hit if they release him but they are not going to do that; and almost certainly would not dump him next year either. IN can get out of the contract as early as 2025, with $4M of Dead-$ and $3M of cap savings.

Regardless of the above contract terms, the Rams could have (possibly) negotiated a similar deal in AAV and guaranteed-$ but structured it differently with regard to cap hits (more or less favorable for different years).

I understand it's a lot for a Kicker but if you have a good one, i think you need to hold on to him. I also understand what they did this past off-season. The only two players I have been critical about the Rams losing (been posting about it since April) were Greg Gaines and Matt Gay. I think both will need to be replaced for the Rams to return to a championship-level team.

 

[RamDino]

We paid all-pro punter 6 million per year, I believe, and that was several years ago Why not pay the all-pro kicker? Matt Gay was special. You keep special players.

 

[dieterbrock]

He's one of the highest paid PKs. Average Annual Value (AAV) second only to Justin Tucker, and guaranteed-$ is 2nd or 3rd highest. $3M cap hit this year, doubling in 2024 and then reaching almost $7M in 2025 and 2026.

Definitely a lot for a Place-Kicker.

Not sure what the relevance is to the Dead-$ number you posted. It's accurate. The Colts would take a $10M Dead-$ hit if they release him but they are not going to do that; and almost certainly would not dump him next year either. IN caan get out of the contract as early as 2025, with $4M of Dead-$ and $3M of cap savings.

Regardless of the above contract terms, the Rams could have (possibly) negotiated a similar deal in AAV and guaranteed-$ but structured it differently with regard to cap hits (more or less favorable for different years).

I understand it's a lot for a Kicker but if you have a good one, i think you need to hold on to him. I also understand what they did this past off-season. The only two players I have been critical about the Rams losing (been posting about it since April) were Greg Gaines and Matt Gay. I think both will need to be replaced for the Rams to return to a championship-level team.

Dead money/guaranteed money, same difference
Too much for a cap strapped team
And who knows if he wanted to stick around? Got his ring. Maybe the small town vibe fits him better. Who knows.
Would I have preferred we kept him? Of course. But I understand why we didnt