Cuts are never easy for the players or franchise to make. Thomas Davis and Brandon Mebane were two important vets in terms of their stature on the LA Chargers, especially Mebane. Both of last year’s “surprise” releases ended up being the right moves. The Chargers drafted Kenneth Murray and signed Linval Joseph in replacing Davis and Mebane.
One of this year’s releases has to be Trai Turner. The right guard didn’t perform well last year after dealing with a groin injury. Even after he had fully rehabbed from the injury, he never looked like the same player we saw from 2015-2017 in Carolina. Turner looked a stepped slow and committed some bad penalties.
1. Justin Herbert has to be well protected
Forget the money on the Turner contract for a minute, which we’ll get to later. Turner was statistically the worst starter on the line last season. He scored a 34.8 on PFF’s grades last year. To understand how truly bad that is, he was ranked 79th out of 80 guards around the league.
Turner was the lowest rated pass blocker on the starting line. Out of all the offensive linemen on the team, the former Panther only was better as a pass blocker than Trey Pipkins and Tyree St. Louis. On an offensive line full of weak links, Turner was the weakest.
It’s hard to consider bringing him back for me when players like Cole Toner were outplaying him at the same spot. The Chargers need to be able to protect Justin Herbert better and Turner just can’t help with that in his current state.
The Chargers can go through the draft, free agency, or their own reserves to find a guard if they want. They won’t be able to find someone who’s as much of a liability as Trai was this season. He failed as a pass blocker and was somehow even worse as a run blocker. Aside from his contract, Turner was slow, in decline, and simply didn’t have good leverage.
If the goal is to protect Herbert and fix the offensive line, I just don’t see how this team can let Turner’s 2020 performance slide.
2. Trai Turner’s cap hit is bad for the LA Chargers
This article is titled “three reasons to cut Trai Turner”, but there are actually 11.3 million reasons why. Turner is due $11.3 million on the final year of his deal in 2021. Is there any dead cap if the Chargers cut him? No.
Usually players with large salaries create some significant dead cap if they’re cut, but Turner has earned all of his guaranteed money. The Chargers can free up his total 2021 contract value without any penalty. A player who was ranked 79th out of 80 guards probably shouldn’t be getting the bag on this team anyway.
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What can Tom Telesco do with a free $11.3 million? He could re-sign Hunter Henry with that cash or go out and get a premier interior lineman like Joe Thuney. There’s a lot of free agents he could get with that type of money. Adding that cash to the cap would boost the Chargers from $34 million available to $45.3 million based on the $185M projection.
The rebuttal to this might be that Turner could come back next year and return to form. Sure, anything is possible. I’m not willing to find out whether a return to form is possible after years of decline for a $10M+ price point. It’s smarter to sign a free agent guard or pursue a rookie contract lineman high in the draft.
3. The LA Chargers’ new regime
A message has to be sent by both the front office and the coaching staff when it comes to not tolerating mediocrity on the offensive line. That part isn’t only about Trai Turner. It’s about stop gap linemen like Dan Feeney, Forrest Lamp, and Sam Tevi as well.
We’ve seen what has happened to quarterbacks who’ve gone unprotected by their offensive lines. The tragedy of Andrew Luck’s career was that Indianapolis waited too long to give him a good offensive line before he was mentally and physically beaten. David Carr had the snot beaten out of him as a number one overall pick due to the expansion Texans’ O-Line.
Russell Wilson is growing tired of Seattle because they’ve done a rather poor job of protecting him there. Imagine every Patrick Mahomes play in the Super Bowl, but if it was every game.
Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco have to do everything possible to not wind up in that situation. Telesco has seen how good Justin Herbert is with a bad offensive line up close. Imagine how good he and Austin Ekeler would be if they could actually block up front? As a lot have said, this team’s eventual ceiling could be the Super Bowl in a few years.
Turner is the most obvious release with his contract and decline. That one has probably already been decided. But the same decisiveness that will be applied to Turner must also be applied to a desire to start better linemen at center, left guard, and left tackle.
Over the next three years, the new regime has to hone in on finding the best O-Line possible. That starts with ridding themselves of one of the worst 2020 linemen in the NFL.