Perhaps they think this is the only sensible strategy they can employ. Faced with the daily task of slogging through the waist-deep debris left by the last guys to leave the building, the new regime at Rams Park seems to have adopted the rather entertaining tactic of whistling while they work.

Every day the Rams' new management team of coach Steve Spagnuolo, general manager Billy Devaney and executive vice president Kevin Demoff put on the good public face, soldiering along as though they really aren't mired in the very serious business of franchise disaster relief. Every time they talk, they act out these well-choreographed lines that seek to divert our eyes from the wreckage they've been commissioned to restore, even though most practical folks can plainly see the mile-deep hole that's been left behind.

I get it. I understand it. In fact I absolutely admire it as Spagnuolo delivers his no-nonsense, panic-free, stay-the-course inspiration inside his locker room. When you are the new head coach trying to fix a team that's won only five lousy games in two years, it's your job to constantly deliver your positive "Don't worry, I got this" message all day every day, and the players would be wise to listen.

It's Spags' job to change the culture inside the locker room.

But outside those walls, it's an unnecessary sales job because most observers acknowledge that the Rams are working on this overwhelming rebuilding effort with huge fiscal handicaps already in place.

We bring this up in the aftermath of Thursday's surprising release of starting linebacker Chris Draft, just 72 hours before Sunday's regular-season opener in Seattle. Cutting Draft may have been a justifiable football decision (the 11-year veteran was being replaced in the starting lineup by second-year man David Vobora), but it was in large part a necessary business evil, too.

Yet after the news became public mid-morning, the Rams curiously spent the rest of the day trying to act as if Draft's release was 100 percent a football decision, when we knew it wasn't.

The move was certainly based in part on his play but also because of the Gift That Keeps on Giving, the haunting, mistake-riddled Jay Zygmunt Error at Rams Park. And sadly for Draft, he ended up paying the consequences for the now defrocked general manager's bad business habits.

We used to think the Rams were only wretched on the field during their rapid decline since the Super Bowl years. Turns out, they were also unconscionably stupid off the field, too. The lasting stain of the Zygmunt Error won't necessarily be that 5-27 record since 2007 or a decade of rotten draft picks. We came to expect that failure because he was a bean counter, not a real football guy. Now that he's gone, we're seeing the indelible mark he left. Turns out, Zygmunt was professionally trained to negotiate contracts and manage the salary cap and he was bad at them, too.

Thanks to Zygmunt's work as Rams chief contract negotiator, the franchise ranks second in the NFL in "dead money" — money still being paid out to players no longer here but that counts against the $123 million cap. As of Thursday, the Rams have a staggering $22 million in dead money, which has left Demoff, Devaney and Spags in a heck of a bind.

But on Thursday, the new management trio carefully avoided the subject. The company line was that Draft's release was all football and had nothing to do with the cap, which, of course, isn't even remotely true. That $22 million in dead money is an enormous bear that Demoff and Devaney will wrestle with all season. And just like every other team in the league, the Rams made tough economic decisions over the past week to get down to the 53-man roster and massage their salary cap issues at the same time.

Notice how many veterans were cut in the last 48 hours, and then pay attention to how many will be re-signed on Monday or Tuesday when teams no longer will be responsible for paying a full year's salary to those vested players.

It was about economics Thursday, and it will be for the rest of the season for the Rams. And if you know anything about the sorry, no-account recent history of the team, you already know that.

But I guess management is worried that by publicly acknowledging its financial disadvantage because of bad draft picks, ill-advised personnel moves, questionable coaching hires, horrible contracts and mountains of dead money, fans might get the wrong message and stop buying tickets.

I don't think so.

By now, it would be almost therapeutic to just come clean. We all know how bad it was and that the fix won't come overnight.

But we also know this: At long last, the guys who broke it have left the building, and that might be the best news of all.