Mike Williams is the biggest free agent of the offseason for the LA Chargers and he is a polarizing one as well. You can make a legit case against and for re-signing Mike Williams, and whichever direction the team decides to go, there is an inherent risk.
There is also the possibility of the team just franchise tagging Williams for one year and not committing to a new deal. That seems to be where most fans are landing on the matter, however, Williams' contract projection is doable for the Bolts.
Back on December 1, we broke down three reasons why the Chargers should let Mike Williams walk. Some things have changed, both with Williams and others. Six weeks later we now want to present the other side of the argument.
3 reasons why the LA Chargers should give Mike Williams a new contract:
1. If you are going to franchise tag him, you might as well re-sign him.
This is something that we have broken down in previous articles in the past but if the LA Chargers are willing to franchise Mike Williams then they might as well re-sign him to a new deal. As long as Williams' contract is at least close to what he is projected to get.
Williams is projected to get a four-year, $68 million contract that would pay him $17 million a year annually. The 2022 franchise tag for receivers is projected to be $18.5 million. It would actually be more expensive in 2022 for the Chargers to tag Williams.
The important number to also remember is guaranteed money. Only $38 million of that is projected to be guaranteed and that is a fair number. Williams will receive close to $40 million guaranteed on his new deal. So if the Chargers are really worried about Williams being inconsistent, they would have the luxury of jumping out of his deal after two years with a small dead cap hit. Kenny Golladay is on a similar deal and his dead cap hit after his second season is $6.8 million.
That is not an unbearable number and if the Chargers are okay with bringing him back on the tag they might as well sign a new contract to give themselves more time to develop the position around him. Franchise tagging him just pushes the issue off another year.