REPORT: Rams Division Rival May Make Cost-Saving Cut

The Los Angeles Rams are not the only team in the NFC West with offseason decisions in front of them.

Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams (23) runs past San Francisco 49ers defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (94) in the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images | Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Rams just capped off a season in which they won the NFC West and a playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings, one of the best teams in the National Football League.

While the Rams have a laundry list of things to figure out this offseason, they do not have nearly as many or as significant of concerns as some of their rivals in the NFC West.

This is especially true for the San Francisco 49ers, who finished this season 6-11 and were rumored not to be in good standing with their head coach. Although they appear to have cleaned up the public whispers surrounding head coach Kyle Shanahan's future, the 49ers still have issues they must solve.

Ben Rolfe of the Pro Football Network recently listed a potential cap casualty for every team in the league. Rolfe believes the 49ers could move on from edge rusher Yetur Gross-Matos after a subpar season from the defender.

"The San Francisco 49ers are in a somewhat strange position coming off the 2024 season," Rolfe said. "There is no way of sugarcoating a very disappointing year, but they do have a bit of a mulligan after the injuries they dealt with. They head into the offseason with around $45 million in effective cap space, which is plenty to make further additions to the roster. That also means that the 49ers do not need to cut players to free up cap space, which is always a nice position to be in. It is also good because the 49ers do not have many options that even make sense in terms of cap savings."

Rolfe noted that not only could the 49ers save money by getting rid of him, but the numbers also say he is one the players the 49ers could benefit the most to move on from this offseason.

"Yetur Gross-Matos is one of the bigger-savings options and somewhat logical from a production-to-cost ratio," Rolfe said. "He played only 34.5% of the snaps in 2024. He finished with four sacks and 10 pressures, which are far from ideal numbers, so there is not a huge case to be made for keeping him at that cost."

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