3 Chargers on their way to being cut barring a late-season turnaround

Eric Kendricks is on his way to being cut by the Chargers

The Eric Kendricks signing made absolutely no sense when it happened and it still makes no sense 12 games into the 2023 season. Kendricks has had some pretty good games, some really bad games, and hasn't been worth what the Chargers paid him.

The Chargers signed Kendricks to a two-year, $13.25 million contract. In doing so, the Chargers committed an average annual salary of $6.625 million. For those keeping track at home, that is more than the contracts Kyzir White and Drue Tranquill signed (combined) after their breakout seasons in LA.

Instead of bringing back the breakout, young, linebackers, the Chargers paid a veteran who was very much past his prime twice as much. Now the Chargers are in a situation where it makes much more sense to cut him after 2023 when they could have just re-signed White or Tranquill to a multi-year deal.

Cutting Kendricks will free up $6.5 million in cap space with a dead cap hit of $2.75 million. This would give the Chargers no starting linebackers on the roster (Kenneth Murray is a free agent) but that might be a good thing. This team may need a restart at linebacker with Daiyan Henley and whoever else comes in to lead the way.

If the Chargers were to couple this with cutting SJD then the team would be roughly $13.4 million over the cap. The final cap casualty on this list would actually put the Chargers back in the black.