He loves L.A.
The Rams’ Leonard Floyd says desire to stay with NFL’s top defense a bigger factor than money.
As the NFL free-agency window opened last week, it was easy to do the math and conclude Leonard Floyd was out of the Rams’ price range.
It was harder to calculate how badly the Rams and their star outside linebacker wanted to make the numbers work out.
The answer came quickly, on the first official day of negotiations, when the two sides agreed to terms on a four-year contract worth up to $64 million.
“Through my agent, they figured it out, because they knew I wasn’t trying to go nowhere else,” Floyd said Thursday. “That’s all she wrote.”
After recording a career-high 10 ½ sacks while playing on a one-year, $10 million “prove it” contract in his first season with the Rams, the 28-year-old Floyd drew interest from other teams.
One was reported to be the Broncos, whose coach, Vic Fangio, was the Bears’ defensive coordinator for three of Floyd’s four seasons in Chicago.
Another that could have made sense was the Chargers, whose coach, Brandon Staley, was the Rams’ defensive coordinator in 2020 and coached Floyd in Chicago.
“Me and Coach Staley, we threw little hints about me playing over there,” Floyd said. “But he knew where I really wanted to be. He knew I really wanted to be with Coach (Sean) McVay.”
Floyd’s new contract is worth a minimum of $32.5 million. Only the first two years’ salaries are guaranteed. The money is distributed to minimize the salary-cap hit in 2021, helping the Rams get under the cap.
But in his re-introductory, virtual press conference, Floyd said his main reason for staying with the Rams wasn’t financial.
“I wanted to play with AD (Aaron Donald) and Jalen Ramsey, you know,” Floyd said, wearing a Dodgers cap. “We was the best defense in the league last year, so I want to stick around with the same players and try and do it again.”
Most of the same players, anyway. The Rams traded defensive lineman Michael Brockers. Their free-agent losses included starting safety John Johnson, cornerback Troy Hill and outside linebacker Samson Ebukam, and key defensive-line backup Morgan Fox.
“Now it’s time for the young guys to step up,” Floyd said. “There was a lot of young guys playing last year that had a lot of great moments.”
One big change in the Rams defense is that, for the first time since they went to a 3-4 scheme in 2017, they change their top edge rusher from one opening day to the next.
McVay and general manager Les Snead said the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Floyd is different because he excels at run and pass defense as well as rushing quarterbacks.
Floyd said Thursday he wants to keep adding dimensions to his game, even if it means the first offseason after signing his first rich contract will be spent working out.
“My driving motivation is to get the (Super Bowl) ring,” he said. “Especially after last year. I felt like we could have got the ring just off defense alone.
“I just feel like, we come back in this year with that focus and that mindset, one game at a time, we can do some big things in L.A.”
Notes
Wide receiver DeSean Jackson’s one-year contract with the Rams is for $4.5 million, with incentives that could make it worth $6.25 million, the NFL Network reported. Jackson, 34, a former Long Beach Poly star, was released by the Eagles in February and agreed to terms with the Rams on Sunday . ... The Rams are $10.3 million under the salary cap, 17th best among the 32 teams, according to overthecap.com. They were $33.1 million over the cap, worst in the league, going into the free-agent period last week, but restructured several veterans’ contracts . ... Backup quarterback John Wolford announced on Instagram that he will wear jersey number 3 this season, giving up number 9 to Matthew Stafford, who wore that with the Lions.