Chargers open door to bring back Mike Williams by trading Keenan Allen

The LA Chargers made a shocking trade that nobody saw coming on Thursday night, shipping fan favorite Keenan Allen off to the Chicago Bears for a fourth-round pick. Trading Allen seemed out of the realm of possibility after the Chargers became cap-compliant, and it definitely was not met well by the fanbase.

At the end of the day, the NFL is a business and the Chargers made a decision that they thought was best for the team. Following that move, though, the Chargers are left with a barren wide receiver room that won't be fixed by the fifth pick alone.

Relying on a rookie (even if it is Malik Nabers) to carry an entire wide receiver corps that is awful around him is not a winning strategy. This team needs help at wide receiver and unfortunately, the best options remaining on the market are not very exciting.

There is one wide receiver who, ironically enough, now makes way too much sense for the Chargers to pursue. Just two days after he was released by the team, Mike Williams now seems like a necessity to re-sign.

Chargers have the funds to re-sign Mike Williams after trading Keenan Allen

It was initially reported after Williams was released by the Chargers that the team was interested in bringing him back at a lower price. Even with the price being lower, the Chargers didn't really have the means to compete with other interested teams on the market.

But after trading Allen, the Chargers have around $22 million in effective cap space to spend, which is more than enough to bring Williams back. Williams will likely sign a one or two-year deal, and his cap hit will probably check out in the $10-12 million range because of his injury history.

That same injury history may worry fans and has caused some to move on from Williams entirely and not fret about what could be. However, outside of his torn ACL this past season, Williams has been mostly available for the Chargers. He played 13 or more games in five straight years and in those five years, he played in 91% of the Chargers' games.

If the Chargers can bring Williams back then the wide receiver room suddenly does not look as bad. A WR corps that consists of Malik Nabers, Williams, Joshua Palmer and Quentin Johnston can be good enough. It is essentially just replacing Allen with a younger, more cost-effective WR1.

It may be risky, sure, but the alternative for the Chargers is pretty bad. Nabers alone is not going to be enough to make this room good enough for Justin Herbet and the free-agent market is scarce. Trusting a mid-round pick to be an instant contributor on offense is also a tall order.

Don't be surprised if the Chargers end up bringing Williams back on a more cost-effective deal after moving on from Allen. After all, the Chargers may not have made this move to begin with if they didn't have a follow-up move planned.