Heading into this season, the inside linebacker was seen as a weakness for the Rams. And after seven weeks, none of that feeling has changed. Still, Les Sneads and the front office made the shocking decision to trade Rams leading linebacker Kenny Young to the Broncos for next to nothing in return.

Los Angeles traded Young and a seventh-round pick in 2024 in Denver for a sixth-round pick in 2024, essentially going one round in three years. This is the lowest return a player can get, but the Rams still saw the value in making this move.

This is because of the salary cap implications that come with trading Young. It has hit a high of $ 2.183 million, none of which has been fully guaranteed this season. Because we’re already seven weeks into the season, the Rams have already paid Young part of his salary, so they won’t get back the same amount of cap space they would have gotten had they traded him before. the start of the season.

According to Over The Cap’s Nick Korte, the Broncos will take about $ 1.3 million from Young’s salary, leaving the Rams with about $ 849,000 in dead money. This represents a saving of 1.3 million dollars for Los Angeles.

Kenny Young is in the final season of his rookie contract, where he earned a proven performance raise to $ 2.183 million. The Broncos will take about $ 1.334 million from that salary.

Young is the 2nd former Rams LB they acquired, along with Micah Kiser.https: //t.co/Ei03e4p3JG https://t.co/t3IeVdRdQz

– Nick Korte (@nickkorte) 25 October 2021

If you add that to their current cap of $ 3.88million, they now have about $ 5.2million in spending money – far more than they had last week before negotiating the youth and restructure Rob Havenstein’s contract.

Knowing how Snead and the Rams work, it’s very possible that a bigger move is ahead. A team doesn’t trade their top linebacker and save $ 1.3 million without making another trade or signing to help the team – whether it’s at the linebacker or elsewhere on the roster.