Salary cap impact of Rams acquiring Trent McDuffie from Chiefs

When a team trades for a player, it’s not just about what draft picks are given up. There’s also a financial side to each deal.

That’s especially true of the Los Angeles Rams’ deal for Trent McDuffie, which was agreed to on Wednesday morning. In addition to giving up four draft picks, one of which is No. 29 overall, the Rams will now have less cap space to work with, too.

McDuffie is in the final year of his rookie contract, a fifth-year option that was exercised by the Chiefs last offseason. The value of that fifth-year option is $13.6 million, which is fully guaranteed for 2026.

As a result, that full amount will hit the Rams’ cap this year, leaving behind no dead money for the Chiefs. At the start of the day, the Rams had $40.2 million in cap space, but now with McDuffie joining the mix, they’re down to $27.46 million, according to Over The Cap.

Because only the top 51 cap hits count against the salary cap, he replaces one player above the top-51 cutoff, so that’s why it’s not a perfect calculation of $40.2M – $13.6M = $26.6M.

McDuffie’s cap charge of $13.63 million is the fifth-largest on the team, coming in between Kevin Dotson ($17.4 million) and Kyren Williams ($12.93 million). Matthew Stafford, Davante Adams and Alaric Jackson are the only other players besides Dotson with larger cap hits than McDuffie.

Just north of $27 million is still plenty of space to work with, especially if the Rams cut Darious Williams to save another $7.5 million and rework some other contracts, like Stafford’s and Adams’.

Assuming the Rams want to keep McDuffie long-term, a contract extension could also lower his 2026 cap hit, spreading out some money across future years.

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: How Trent McDuffie trade impacts Rams' salary cap