Should the Rams Pay Up for Jeffery?

The Chicago Bears declined the option to stick the franchise tag on star wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey. This makes him an unrestricted free agent and he will no doubt be courted by virtually every team. Jeffrey is a pro bowl wide receiver that has amassed 4,549 receiving yards, 304 catches, and 26 touchdowns in his five year career. He is certainly the big weapon that Jared Goff would need to even have a shot at improving and he would easily be the best receiver on the roster since Torry Holt. So it appear that signing Alshon Jeffery would be a slam dunk right? Assuming Jeffery wanted to play for the Rams (not a given) should the Rams pay what some are estimating to be a contract in the neighborhood of a four year 54 million dollar deal? The answer to that question is no. Jeffery’s stats look great on paper but the cost and the risks therein do not make it a worthwhile gambit.

Alshon Jeffery in a vacuum is a very talented receiver and given that he’s only 27 he has many years of greatness ahead of him. Also, in a vacuum the Rams are desperate for a superstar wide out both because their entire offense has been a joke for over a decade and they also need to know if the potential franchise quarterback they sunk so much in can succeed. So why aren’t the two scenarios simpatico? The reason is Jeffery may have a ton of potential and has already shown numerous skill but he has a few red flags that should make Les Snead and the rest of the Rams front office a little hesitant. Jeffery while being productive and playing all but one game in 2015 before being placed on injured reserve towards the end of that season. The problem is, for most of his career he had been playing with various aliments to his calves, hamstrings, and other lower body ailments. Sure, everyone plays with some sort of injury or injuries but what’s concerning is that these injuries seem to be piling up. Giving Jeffery superstar money is a risky proposition because there’s no guarantee that these injuries won’t get worse.

The other risk worth considering is that last season he was suspended for four games for violating the leagues substance abuse policy. True, it was never revealed what he was suspended for and it would be presumptuous to assume it would happen again, but the fact that it could should give management a little pause. Alshon Jeffery is going to make some team very happy and if circumstances were different than these wouldn’t be major concerns but the Rams don’t have the luxury to sign him. They still need to either tag or sign Trumaine Johnson to a long term deal and they have too many other holes elsewhere to allocate damn near all their resources on Alshon Jeffery. He wouldn’t be the missing piece on their receiving corps he’d be their only piece. Teams would simply double cover him because they know Tavon Austin can’t beat them given he’s only effective out of the backfield and they don’t have any other weapons that would make defenses think twice. It’s a bummer that the Rams can’t add a star receiver for Sean McVay to work with but they can’t. DeSean Jackson is out there as well but the Rams already had a chance at DeSean Jackson but drafted Donnie Avery instead. Jackson exhibits the same problems that a Jeffery signing would. The Rams don’t need to break the bank simply because they feel they have to. The good teams are the ones that know when to throw money around and when to recognize that the timing isn’t right and in this case the timing isn’t right.