LA Chargers: Four reasons to re-sign Melvin Ingram

4. There is still enough salary cap to do it.

One of the reasons some have brought up for trading Ingram is salary cap. With the massive Bosa contract on the books, perhaps it’s just not feasible to add an Ingram contract. That doesn’t quite hold up though when looking at the numbers.

The Chargers currently have $66 million in 2021 cap available after Bosa’s extension. Let’s say for a moment that the team’s first priority is to re-sign Keenan Allen to a four year, $80-88 million dollar deal. $22 million in average annual value would bring the Chargers’ available cap room down to about $44 million.

The next guy up after Allen would be Ingram, and there’s still plenty of money to sign him to a deal between $15 and $20 million in average annual value. Let’s take the middle on that and say the Chargers sign him to a 3 year, $54 million dollar deal. That would bring the cap down to $26 million. Even with big contracts for Allen and Ingram, the Chargers still have $25+ million in cap room.

Frankly, with $26 million in cap left, the Chargers could grab themselves a free agent off of the open market or re-sign Hunter Henry. Desmond King would be in contention to get an extension with the remaining money as well. The Chargers still have plenty of money for the future of the team after the Bosa contract. It’s simply a matter of how they want to use it.

Ingram should be a Charger for at the very least the next two or three years. He’s still near the top of his game and has a terrific partner on the other side of the line in Bosa. With more interior pressure, it doesn’t make sense to break them up now.

The Chargers don’t have the ability to replace Ingram in the short term, at least not with a comfortable option. Going through the draft or starting Nwosu are both much riskier propositions.

The LA Chargers have the financial flexibility to make it work. It’s just a matter of if they want to.