3 roster moves that would instantly save the LA Chargers $32 million
By Jason Reed
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports – LA Chargers
On the surface, it appears as if the LA Chargers are just fine as far as the salary cap is considered. According to Over The Cap, the Chargers currently have $19.671 million in cap space this offseason, the ninth-most in the entire NFL.
However, that number, and the fact that the Chargers rank in the top 10 in cap space, is a bit misleading.
For starters, the Chargers have a big extension due to Hunter Henry. Henry is likely going to make $10 million per season on this extension, cutting the cap space down to $9.671 million. The 2021 NFL Draft class, again per Over The Cap, is estimated to take $8.4 million in cap space.
Just Henry and the draft alone wipes away almost all of the team’s cap space and there are other areas that need to be addressed. This alone makes it impossible to re-sign guys like Michael Davis and Rayshawn Jenkins.
The Chargers also only have 48 players signed with that cap space. They join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only teams in the top 16 in terms of cap space with fewer than 50 players signed and Tampa Bay has more cap space than the Chargers.
It is clear that the team is going to have to do some salary-cap maneuvering to make this work and luckily for Tom Telesco, there are three easy moves he can make right away to free up approximately $32.65 million in salary-cap space.