NFL News: Sought-After Linebacker Lands Massive Payday With Los Angeles Rams

Former Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner has a new goal going into the new NFL season: helping the Los Angeles Rams win a second straight Super Bowl.

Prominent NFL insider Adam Schefter reported that the Rams signed Wagner to a five-year, $50 million deal worth up to around $65 million.

At age 32, many would have expected Wagner to be on the decline, but as he proved last season, he might still have enough in the tank to keep going.

The six-time All-Pro linebacker posted a career-high 170 tackles in 16 games played and also added a sack plus an interception.

Funnily enough, it was Wagner’s former Seattle teammate and Super Bowl XLVIII winner Richard Sherman who broke the news, saying that the Rams may have lost Von Miller to free agency, but they more than made up for it by signing Wagner.

Miller signed a monumental deal of his own with the Buffalo Bills--a six-year, $120 million deal in mid-March.

Wagner is the second biggest addition by the Rams this offseason after the franchise was able to pry away wide receiver Allen Robinson from the Chicago Bears thanks to a three-year, $46.5 million deal--with $30.7 million of it being fully guaranteed.

The football community decided to poke fun at the situation in Los Angeles as the team seemingly has an unending supply of cash to keep signing all of these big-name free agents and give them a large chunk of guaranteed money right then and there.

However, it can be theorized that the Rams and other teams who have spent so much money in free agency decided to backload the new deals of their latest acquisitions in anticipation of a potential spike going into the 2023 season due to new TV deals.

This year’s cap is set at $208.2 million, a $25.7 million increase from last year since the cap actually fell from $198.2 million in 2020 to just $182.5 million mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rams have one thing going in their minds this season, and signing Wagner drastically improves their chances of repeating a Super Bowl appearance.