FanPost

The Jason Smith Dilema

Jason Smith, a name despised by us all. Arguably one of the bigger busts in Rams History. He also holds the key to this offseason. What the Rams do is entirely dependant on what they do with him this season. Will he be released or will he restructure his contract.



As many of you may know, we do not have all that much cap room this year, 10 million or so, next year is the year where we have the large amount of cap space. However we still have to resign Chris Long and Laurinitaus, but that's a topic for another post.

Jason Smith counts a for a good chunk of the money we have tied up, how much I am not sure, and frankly it doesnt really matter, as I have yet to see a number as to how much we would have availible if we did release him. Given that, if we did release him, we would save some money but not a whole lot.

Part of the problem i see with releasing him, is yes he sucked. But he wasn't the only bad offensive lineman. Bell and Brown were both also subpar. Releasing Jason Smith, leaves us 3 wholes on the line to fill. Now im not arguing he has shown much worth keeping. But there was a reason he was drafted 2nd overall. Id prefer that we restructure his contract than outright release him. If he is unwilling to do so, then we have to cut our losses.

If he is released, then I think its likely we draft Kalil at #2. Unless someone throws a bunch of picks at us, I think we will have to take Kalil to work on fixing our offensive line. Either that or pick up someone in FA, but I doubt we could get anyone good, without paying more than we are already paying Jason Smith.

If we do keep Jason Smith, we would be looking instead for a G and Center in the draft. It is possible that Smith could be moved to guard, but I feel like its more likely he stays at RT.

Now arguably this whole Jason Smith ordeal hinges more on how the front office feels about saffold at LT, but I still feel like Jason Smith is the key to what we do this offseason.