Rams Cap Casualties Joe Noteboom and Brian Allen, Rams Picked to Got to Super Bowl, MVP Stafford

the Rams are going to cut these two players very soon should they that's coming up next here on locked on Rams you are locked on Rams your daily Los Angeles Rams podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] what is up Ramy and welcome to another episode of lockon rams your daily podcast cover your Los Angeles Rams free and available wherever get your podcast locked on Rams part of lockon podcast Network your team everyday we're also available on YouTube so if you haven't yet do us a huge favor and subscribe to lockon Rams YouTube channel hit that subscribe button hit that notification Bell hit that like button and drop any questions you want to see featured on the show we're answering one later in the show little mini mailbag episode later my name is Doug McCain friends call me dmac you can follow me on X and Instagram at dmac corla I've been covering LA Sports for over a decade 247 Sports SI Dodgers Nation now the Rams 4 locked on and as always I'm joined by the Rams preap and postgame show host for the Rams flagship radio station ESPN 710 La he just finished his eighth season covering your Los Angeles Rams the people's champ Mr Travis Rogers you can follow him on X Travis Rogers and on today's episode can Matthew Stafford win MVP next season who will the Rams be cutting soon we got some cap casualty talk but we're going to start Today's Show with the hype surrounding the 2024 Los Angeles Rams and is it getting a little bit overboard because Travis we've got two NFL experts two analysts we got Jeremy Fowler and field Yates both have the Rams in the Super bowl next season and it's not winning the Super Bowl but they have the Rams losing Fowler has the Rams losing to the bill and Yates of course has the Rams losing to Patty Mahomes number five going for the threee the Patrick so t-shir made for that I'm getting a t-shir made for that but but uh too much too soon I I think it's probably a little bit too much and I think for the Rams Fans it probably isn't too soon right I I think that this is a team that look it it changes so fast and like I said to to you earlier this week te ma the the everyday or remember this I am making a commitment to myself and to you and to all of our regular listeners all of our every dayers that I'm going to try to remind myself that nobody knows anything because every year we do this right we say okay this the season ended less than a week ago and we're trying to talk about who's going to be in the Super Bowl about 359 days from now um the Rams will be better the Rams will be a team that is expected to make the playoffs the Rams will be a team that if they get into into the playoffs and lose in the first round like they did this year it'll be considered a disappointment if the Rams don't make a run if they don't kick that window a little further wide open then I think that it's been a disappointing year look this is this is what the Rams do they they they they show up they get good they just miss and then they all of a sudden get better after that this is a year that if you're looking at Shawn mcvey's progression this should be a pretty darn good year it's get close get there and then and then fall out after that this is a get there year uh they have a quarterback they have somebody to get to the quarterback they have Playmakers at both wide receiver and running back they need to get better on the defensive side but it's not a stretch to think that this is one of the two or three or four best teams in the NFC and really if that's what we all think they are then saying that they're in the Super Bowl that's winning one more game that that that's just getting one more game underneath and we know that the coach has the pedigree that the organization has the pedigree so it's incredibly optimistic but I don't think it's so overblown that it's a it's a pipe dream things have to go right and they have to play well but they've got the right people in the right spots yeah and that's it right there one you point out the NFC not as great as we've seen in years past it's wide open if the Rams go on a run you could absolutely see him cruising through the NFC I mean the 49ers maybe the Eagles are better the Cowboys or the Cowboys but I do feel confident if they make the Right Moves this off season as far as who do they pick up in free agency with the draft Capital that they have will they go and draft someone will they trade that pick will they pick up an edge rusher through free agency will you bring back Kevin doson I mean there's a lot of questions that still need to be answered but I do think that it is a little bit time to recalibrate those expectations in a positive way knowing that they did hit on all those draft picks last season that you did have puka n emerge as a true threat a guy that's going to supplement what they're not getting from Cooper cup at this stage of his career but I do get a little weird when I start to see them this soon included in all these takes from all these analysts that they're not completely in the Weeds on these teams it's just they're all kind of paring the same thing oh the Rams have their first first round picks in 2016 they have cap space you have Matthew Stafford healthy when they're all starting to kind of say the same thing I'm like wait a minute but who are they drafting with that draft pick is said Draft pick on a work out oh what are they doing with that cap space so I do think it's a little premature but it still gets me excited I love to hear the Rams including National ation I think you bring up a really good point and and that's that the NFC does not have a dominant team I I look the ners have been very good for about the last five or six years that you know they're in the NFC Championship Game regularly that we've seen them appear in the Super Bowl a couple of times under Kyle Shanahan they're good but look this is the NFL you don't stay at the top a super long time I think that the the market correction on the ners and the just the the regression to the mean is probably coming sooner than later for them I don't know what's going on in Philadelphia there seems to be something that doesn't work there for them like you mentioned the Cowboys go ahead and place your bets on the Cowboys I'll take everybody's action all the time you know what I mean I I'm not I'm not sold on them at all I think that the other teams that you have to look at is what does it look like with Jordan love with more confidence starting for his second full year what do Minnesota look like if Kirk Cousins is fully healthy what does somebody like Raheem Morris do in Atlanta there's going to be a team that comes out of nowhere that's going to be like wow they're pretty good the Rams are in that group that now again we we we talk about this all the time if you have a quarterback and a coach and some guys that can make some plays you got a chance and I think that's what it is that get into that playoff picture find a way to get a maybe a home game find a way to maybe find you know get an upset somewhere along the line This is it's not a stretch but it's also not a okay we're right there a few years ago it felt like you were right on the the doorstep this is a you're in the party but you're not quite the team to beat they're going to have to catch a couple of breaks like you mentioned with draft with free agencies you know they don't have to do what they did last year but they also can't do what they did with Logan bruss and two two outwell they're gonna have to do somewhere in the middle of that where you're adding some guys that are impactful right away but I if you're just ranking the most important things they've got the two most important things coach and quarterback that's going to take you a long way yeah you you just stole the words right out of my mouth I was about to say it's a quarterback and coaches league and they have an elite coach and Elite quarterback and you start right there you feel good about your chances also I think there's a sense of urgency around this franchise knowing Matthew Stafford's age knowing Aaron Donald's age knowing Cub's age knowing that okay we want to push those chips in the middle of the table one more time try to squeeze another ring out of this core and then we're going to feel really good about this run that we've been on they're not satisfied just with one Super Bowl they won multiple Super Bowls out of this run and I do think that look you look at this Rams team they did everything they needed to do in 2023 to springboard that momentum into 2024 with the success of the draft picks with the healthy staffer with Donald looking like there's no signs of show slowing down even though cup progress you found you found pukan AA you just need to address those needs in the secondary Edge rusher kind of fix that defense how will the new coaches integrate into Shay system so I think there are some questions but look it could be a situation where no one's talking about the Rams right now because they had a dreadful 2023 season like everyone expected them to that didn't happen they won 10 games in a rebuild year they almost made it to the division round so they overachieved and I hopeful I think look I'm thinking Rams Chiefs I like that one my sneaky Pig Rams Texans sneaky pick is R when way too early I need one of those four I need to knock one of those four teams out that haven't made it uh well I I like the Texans that's an interesting uh I'm GNA keep like I said from the very beginning I'm going to keep picking Patrick Mahomes until Patrick Mahomes is no longer available to be picked I I I just said that's one of the this is the thing you put in the bank and you just collect you know your 2% interest forever and ever I'm just gonna keep taking it I'm just gonna keep taking it until I can't take it anymore for sure and then also point out the Niners too yeah they're great only two teams in NFL history have lost the Super Bowl and made it back 70 Cowboys and 17 Patriots so it's very unlikely but you're going with the Patrick but that's coming up next we are talking about cap casualties who will the Rams be cutting in the next couple months that's coming up next here on lock on Rams all right door Dash you know how much I love my door Dash I like door Dash especially on an early weekend morning where maybe you were out a little bit late the night before and you're just feeling like maybe I don't want to go out to that front door you just want to have something brought in door Dash open up that door Dash app on your phone because door Dash is the all-in-one app for your everyday needs from restaurants groceries flowers gifts so the next time you're running low on well just about anything right on dinner ideas pet supplies you just don't even have the time or the want to leave the house you can get so much more than you realize delivered right to your front door for instance maybe you didn't 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the offseason keep it up to date with your Los Angeles Rams and you can be an everyday listener too all you got to do is just watch and listen to every episode and you won't miss a thing about your Los Angeles Rams now Travis we're talking cap casualties here in the second segment and Joe noboom has been one of the more polarizing Ram players in the last couple of seasons and really if you just look at the money of it he has a $20 million cap hit in 2024 that's a lot for a backup lineman and there's really no reason for the Rams to keep him on the roster he only has a $5 million in Savings in cap savings but hey that's $5 million you can use elsewhere yeah look I I think this could be one of these things that we like you but we don't like you at this price we we we like you but if we if you want to stay and we would like you to stay we're going to have to come out to to some agreement that works out a little bit better for us economically because you're right at that number it doesn't make a lot of sense to pay somebody that amount of money to not play 17 games that you're gonna have to be a starting caliber player and I think that we know that Joe Noom is not that unfortunately however I want him on the team you you're going to you're going to have to find a way to keep him on the team at a price that works for that it's more of a Team friendly price he knows La I don't know if the league is dying for him to be a starter somewhere else and this has been a very valuable guy much like with with you dmac with tutu and that you've been on there I kind of have a soft spot for Joe nopo not as a starter but as somebody that can kind of fill in and an as needed basis he was a big reason they won the Super Bowl and remember Andrew Whitworth went down for a period of time and Joe noo slid in there and and was was playing Left tackle on a Super Bowl championship team he played important games for them last year I don't want him to make a lot of money and take it off of other guys plates like you mentioned you can spend it elsewhere but I would love to at least throw it out there and see if there's a way to keep him on the team at a lower price because I think he's a valuable piece but he's also an expensive piece and those two things don't go together yeah I mean if you could talk yourself into the idea of keeping him and not cutting him the case would essentially be okay you're basically looking at $15 million in dead money at that point and you have to go out there and get a backup anyway right so I mean if he if you do think he can play that role that death row a multi-position lineman they can you can plug in at multiple positions and I think yeah maybe go for it but yeah if you look at some of the Void years and just kind of the way the contract is structured it pretty much does make a lot of sense to move on and I think for me the big question is even if you do keep him do stay healthy I mean he's six years into his NFL career he's been in 67 of 97 games only had 31 starts so yeah he's paid as a starter so he shouldn't be he should have that starters role I mean your compated one you should definitely start right but I mean if he's not going to do that then I mean do you really see the value in him but the other obvious one though is Brian Allen Brian Allen $3.15 million in dead money 4.9 million in cap savings the team's Gonna Save about $5 million with Brian Allen I think this one's a no-brainer I do too I do too and this is another one that you know as a Ram strap pick he's been here a long time he's had some moments where he was a pretty good football player but you know Coleman Shelton kind of grabbed that job and held on to it and has become the Rams starting center this is the guy that they they're one of the few guys that the Rams resigned last year to to bring back so obviously they like him a lot and with the numbers that you just laid out right there dmac this just feels like one that uh he's gonna have to play somewhere else next year that finding that backup center is probably something that you could do do through the draft maybe that's something you could do through free agency um yeah I I would be surprised to see him back uh next season for sure yeah and he really just hasn't been the same he was a little bit different when Corvett was kind of propping him up a little bit you saw his skills start to decline but yeah I mean at those prices I think no boom's a little more of a complicated one Allen's a more obvious one and really outside of that you're not going to see them move off of Donald or Stafford or any of those guys and anyone out there saying Cooper cup should be cut or they should move on for cup I mean it really doesn't make sense at all when you look at his deal I mean if you would trade cup that would only save 2.74 million unless the deal is made after May so it's just not going to happen he's a fully guaranteed 15 million base salary fully guaranteed 5 million on the roster bonus 29.8 million cap hit on the books no matter what so they're not moving off a Cooper cup is my point here yeah I I think with Cooper Cup in particular I'm of two minds with one is I think he's going to be a lot better next year than he was this most recent season I think that there were some lingering health issues that really prevented him from being his best self he he he was too good of a player for too long to have a year like we saw a year ago where he really wasn't the the guy that we've come to know so I'm optimistic that this was more Health rated than anything else that's that's the first thing that I think of the second thing I think of is not necessarily cutting him or trading him but let's keep an eye on what it is right let's keep an eye on that production let's find a way that if he continues to you know do what happens to every athlete and that is decline as you get a little older then you need to figure out how much he needs to be featured you need to figure out how much you want to slide on the puka plate you need to figure out uh whether or not a third wide receiver uh this season is is a priority whether or not you want to kind of go bargain hunting the way that they did last year and and hope to catch lightning in a bottle with a Demarcus Robinson or something like that because if he is as inconsistent and as unimpactful as he was for the majority of the Season puka is not going to be able to do it by himself and the more that that that cup puts on tape that's just not the old cup the harder it gets for puka so I I think those two things are obviously very different but two things you keep uh keep in mind going into the season yeah and it's a very different position wide receiver and quarterback but just look at everyone writing off Matthew Stafford after the year he had two years ago saying he was washed saying he was too old and he came back and they kept him healthy and he was back to being an extremely productive player that really LED this team to the playoffs and Cooper cup 30 he's going to turn 31 in June of course that is kind of on the wrong side of 30 of course if you're a receiver so he's not aging as gracefully as Donald and Stafford is but I think you made the best point is that how do you optimize him at this stage of his career knowing you're G to keep him knowing that there's intangible benefits too him being a leader a culture Builder what he does as a blocker I think get him fully healthy he can still produce for this team and I still want Cooper Cup on the Los Angeles Rams but coming up next here on lockon Rams we could take him one of your questions will Matthew Stafford win MVP what will it take and also pukan AA shares a hilarious story about Aaron Donald that's coming up next now lock on Rams are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little bit further you ever wonder what Adventure could be around the next Corner our friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUV with the capabilities to 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Travis first I want to share this little story I saw pugan AA was on a podcast he talked about being a rookie at OTAs and he's in the Rams wait room and he's got the the gun on his arm and all of a sudden he hears move he looks back and it was Aaron Donald and Aaron Donald was reaching for the 180 lb dumbells and apparently puka noua did not move enough so he told him to move again and then puka apparently ran out of the waight room and pretend like he had to go to the bathroom he said he was terrified and he didn't come back so that just shows you Aaron d man that's how you lead by example 180 pound dumbells all right so I'll I'll tell you a quick eron Donald story um we went to go shoot some commercials on the field at Sofi stadium for my my radio job on ESPN 710 here in Los Angeles we went into Sofi uh one afternoon and we were going to shoot some some spots down on the on the field and and and you know do do what you do to promote the radio show so we're down there we do it we're down there for about an hour or so and as we're walking back off the field through the tunnel there's this person getting out of a car underneath and it you kind of do it wait wait what what Saron Donald right he he's he's down there with with I think some of his friends or family or or I'm not quite sure who it was but it was the first time that I had been standing within 10 feet of him trust me when he tells you to move you're gonna move there there is no like you you look at it and you're like that can't be a human being like that that that people don't look like that people don't have that sort of mus they're not that big that that that unbelievably fit and strong and be able to move like it was just it didn't add up it was like seeing the Incredible Hulk in real life and so if pukan nakua ran to the bathroom to stay away from Aaron Donald out of fear I get it because I just kind of glimpsed him out of the corner of my eye from a distance and was like yeah we should probably get out of here I I don't know what's going on because he is an unbelievably intimidating presence yeah I just picture The Motif music for Debo in Friday following him every time I see him that's my bike punk you know I mean just the intimidation factor of an Aaron Donald but real quick got this question from Toby little Rams kid Matthew Stafford win the MVP next season well currently through FanDuel he has the 11th best odds to win the MVP last season 15 games 3,965 yards that was 11 24 touchdowns that was 11th 15th in QB rating fifth in qbr me personally I don't think that's important for the Rams for Matthew Stafford to win the MVP because if he wins MVP they'll probably tell me that the running game isn't where it needs to be the defense might not be where it needs to be so can it happen sure but will it happen I hope it doesn't because look I want have a great season but I want to balance attack I it's going to prolong his career yeah I like the point about the uh the the Dual threat right the be the running game being a big part of what the Rams do offensively as well but you know let's be the op let's try to have it both ways right let's hope that the running game is a part of it but Matthew Stafford puts together one of those years that we've seen him have before in Detroit where the numbers are just Bonkers and here's the part that has to be a part of any MV MVP conversation you have to be on one of the best teams right the reason Lamar Jackson was the MVP is because they were the number one seed in the AFC the reason that Brock pie was getting NFC or I should say uh MVP consideration was because his team was the number one seed in the NFC that if you have the best team you're and you're the quarterback of the best team and your numbers are somewhere between good to great you're going to get MVP consideration so if Matthew Stafford and the Rams are knocking around a top seed he's throwing touchdown passes all over the place even if it's not you know Dan Marino or or prime Matthew Stafford numbers he's got a chance for sure I I I wouldn't I I you know I wouldn't pick him as the okay you got to pick one guy who it's going to be but the value that you're talking about plus a team that's expected to be good a team that does put up numbers and a team that's expected to win a lot sure I can see a world war would come together yeah I mean there's not that many players in the history of the NFL that have won the MVP and the Super Bowl in the same season a lot of times we see the MVP Peak a little early looking at you Lamar Jackson and then you see players that look they don't Peak at the right time so I just want to see Matthew Stafford Peak at the right time just kind of have a really solid to great year we know he can make all the throws right we know he's an MVP caliber arm but I just want to see him win Super Bowl MVP a little more by the way we're not getting into the Weeds on that we know he should definitely deserve a strong consideration so that's what I want to see but hey the good thing is he's in conversation the good thing is that's how we're feeling about our quarterback heading into the season the fact that we even have this conversation says a lot and what a difference a year makes so Matthew Stafford if you win MVP I'd be stoked but give me Super Bowl MVP but that's gonna do it for this episode of lockon rams my name is Doug McCain you can follow me on exit Instagram at dmac corla and as always you can follow the people chat Mr Travis Rogers Travis Rogers until next time who house it's locked on Rams house