Reports out of St. Louis this offseason have been pretty consistent about wide receiver Danny Amendola hitting the open market when free agency opens next month.
General Manager Les Snead pushed them closer to being correct on Friday by saying that the team would not be using the franchise tag on Amendola. Snead told Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com that the team will continue working to sign Amendola, but that potentially spending north of $10 million for Amendola on a one-year deal wasn’t an option.
It’s not hard to understand why the Rams came to the decision. Amendola’s been a productive player when healthy for the Rams, but he hasn’t been healthy often enough over the last two years to justify that kind of salary. With the Rams short on receivers even with Amendola in the fold, they’ll likely continue staying in touch with Amendola and will probably a good bet to sign him unless he gets an offer he can’t refuse somewhere else.
Snead put contract talks with running back Steven Jackson right alongside Amendola as top offseason priorities. They’re expected to start working on that end of things at the combine.