First, regarding the O-line, you want to cut Barnes, who has been durable and the only consistent performer, yet you want to keep Jamon Brown and Andrew Donnal who were much worse?
Second, regarding the defense, you want to cut Hayes and Sims who are durable, 2 games missed between them, but keep Quinn @ 10.750 Mil per season (2017) while only playing in 9 games this past season? And his salary will be 2-Mil more than Hayes and Sims combined. I'm not suggesting cutting Quinn, but there doesn't seem to be concern in the difference in production versus Salary Cap ramifications.
Last, I'm not sure why you would list TJ MacDonald and Cody Davis, but not list Maurice Alexander? His instincts at Safety are worse than Davis and he was not good at tackling this past season.
Are you questioning my personnel groupings for future asap upgrades?
First, regarding the O-line... Barnes was the starting center and I would overpay for a free agent upgrade at center if there is one to be had. Meaning Barnes contract might be better removed from the books. Brown and Donnal are not centers and they're only 2nd year players that I will agree with you, were much worse at their respective positions for what ever various reasons. If the Rams couldn't get a true upgrade at center in F/A for Barnes of course he would need to be retained.
Second, Hayes and Sims are both south of 30 and not starting edge rushers in the NFL. Durability or not their contracts being removed from the books opens up a possibility for a DE free agent upgrade. Essentially getting one B+ player and losing two C+ players. If there isn't a better upgrade option, then you need keep one or both of them by default.
Third, TJ McD and Cody Davis are both UFA's (unrestricted) and free to go anywhere they want. One or both most likely will take the money and run to greener pastures or to teams that have a quicker road to the playoffs, which in return wouldn't bother me one bit to see either one of them leave. TJ's not transcendent SS and Davis is a Journeyman special teams reserve FS. I agree with you that Mo Alexander's extincts and cover skills are lacking for a starting strong SS but he's not a UFA and he did gain another year of solid experience.
Last, if you read my response to Mojo I explained why my list was also so long..
My list wasn't realistic though because obviously you could never gut a team by cutting 25 players from the previous year and logically find better players in one calendar year off-season.
My list was more of a reference sheet of the players I hope the new HC/GM regime can replace with upgrades sooner than later. Some of them might actually turn out to be better players next season and remain on the roster for another 2 or 3 years.
GO LA Rams!