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Now that the Los Angeles Rams have settled on the decision to trade a first round pick for Trent McDuffie, the next step is to solidify their investment with a contract extension for the former Chiefs cornerback. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that it is “likely” that the Rams will make McDuffie the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history.
Over $30 million per season.
One of the most fascinating questions when it comes to defensive backs is the ever-evolving market of “which position is the most valuable?”
When the Rams traded for Jalen Ramsey and then later made him the highest-paid cornerback in history at $20 million per season, it came with a “prototypical” label for a height-weight-speed corner who was a top-5 pick by the Jaguars. The type of corner you’d expect to match one-on-one with an AJ Brown or a DK Metcalf.
However, the best receiver in the division now (not including Puka Nacua, who obviously won’t go against the Rams any time soon) is Jaxon Smith-Njigba and he’s someone who McDuffie could match up more favorably against than the “prototypical” corner. Smith-Njigba is not the biggest or the fastest, but the reigning Offensive Player of the Year is someone who L.A. has a specific eye on to contain next season as the Rams strive to take back the NFC West.
If the Rams were looking to counter the team that just won the Super Bowl, then improving their coverage abilities with one of the better cover men in the league (Next Gen Stats notes that McDuffie is allowing 6.2 yards per target over the last four seasons) to slow down Smith-Njigba is certainly a step in that direction.
But does $30 million go a step too far?
Why the money isn’t that important
The Chiefs didn’t feel comfortable paying McDuffie top cornerback money obviously, but that doesn’t mean that setting the market is a bad idea for every team. And in today’s NFL, “salary cap” has become a much less scarier word than in the recent past.
The cap just went over $300 million for the first time ever and there’s no reason to think that the league is shrinking any time soon.
The Rams have few major commitments after 2026 and though that is also a concern—it means that they have a ton of important players who Les Snead either needs to re-sign or replace—it left a major opportunity for L.A. to do what they love to do which is trade a cheap cost-controlled rookie contract for a proven veteran with less risk in terms of on-field value.
–Paying McDuffie a $30 million annual salary won’t even sting the Rams books until 2028, at the soonest. The first couple of years will be relatively cheap, assuming the contract is structured like almost any other.
–Sauce Gardner’s $30 million extension with the Jets in 2025 (since traded to the Colts) doesn’t cross over $30 million until 2029.
And McDuffie’s size shouldn’t necessarily preclude him from being one of the top corners in the league. Derek Stingley and Devon Witherspoon, two of the top-5 corners in the league last year, are also not “prototypical”. Stingley currently has the second-highest salary and Witherspoon could follow McDuffie with a market-setting contract of his own this offseason.
Rams chose McDuffie over someone
In any case, the Rams probably did choose to address the cornerback position over somebody else on the roster who won’t be paid, whether that’s Steve Avila, Byron Young, Kobie Turner, Warren McClendon, or other. It’s not that paying everybody is possible, but it is a bad idea. Just adding $30 million of annual salary to the books means that a certain number was erased from being utilized on somebody else.
So McDuffie will need to bring that All-Pro caliber effort to the secondary for the next 3-5 years because that’s the level of investment being made here. The contract is coming soon because otherwise the trade would make little sense.