2. Restructuring Joey Bosa's contract
While we are on the topic of moves the Chargers can make to free up salary-cap space, the other no-brainer for the team is restructuring Joey Bosa's contract this offseason. According to Over The Cap, a simple restructure would free up $15.2 million in salary-cap space.
The Chargers can become cap compliant simply by cutting Feiler and restructuring Bosa. There are more moves to be made to paid the draft class and be able to re-sign some impending free agents, but those are the first two moves that the Chargers should undoubtedly do to get started.
Restructuring a contract does not simply eliminate a cap hit, it simply smooths it out for the remainder of a contract. As a result, Bosa's cap hit would jump to $36.6 million next season. It is currently projected to be $29 million.
This also adds more dead money towards the end of the deal, making it harder to cut someone at the end of a contract as the team would not be freeing up as much money. That is why restructuring Khalil Mack again might not be a smart move as the Chargers may look to cut him next offseason as he will have very little dead money and a huge cap hit in 2024.
Those concerns are not there with Bosa. Sure, he does get injured, but he is one of the best edge rushers in the sport and is undoubtedly going to be an impact player for the remainder of his contract. What makes it even more of a no-brainer is the fact that he will only be 30 in his last year under contract.
This is not a situation where the Chargers are pushing off the cap hit so they can pay a 34-year-old edge rusher in the last year of his contract. Bosa will only be 30 and will still be producing so he will be worth the cost.