2023 Official Roster Build Thread - The Initial 53 / Practice Squad

[Lone Bolt]

It might be remembered that Salyer's arms are longer than Joe Thomas'.

Chandler Jones has ridiculously long arms and is streaky.

I have no doubt that Kellen Moore can scheme up, especially with bookend "Slater on an island" back in business.

Yea...short arms...thought that was debunked with Slater...

Never live by pff scores...but they did actually grade him a few ticks higher than Pip last year...his ROOKIE year...at LEFT tackle....

Lotta ways to configure this oline...prefer to see Pip back, and Salyer at G/swing tackle, but if it falls to him to man the right full time, Im comfortable with that. If my favs are gone by 21 (Bijan, Branch, Mayer) and we arent thinking WR early, I like this lineup...

Slater Zion Linsley Torrence Salyer...

And if Pip does return, Salyer can either battle and win the job, or we will have a damn good swing tackle. Chances are, he wont go to rust on the bench...

[Lone Bolt]

Adderly. ASJ. Woods.
We need tacklers.
And people who can help us match up better.

Much as I love Bijan and Mayer as a fan...I think if Im calling the shots, and Branch is there, its a done deal...4 missed tackles his whole career...

[Boltnut]

LT Slater
LG Salyer
OC Linsley
RG Zion
RT Cody Mauch (2nd round)
TE Everett
WR KA
WR MW
WR JP
RB Ekeler
QB Herbert

CB Vato
CB ASJ
CB Clark Phillips (1st round)
S James
S Woods/Gilman
DE Bosa
DE Mack
DT SJD
DT AJ
LB K9
LB Daiyan Henley (3rd round)

All under the cap with about $8 million cap space for in-season FA's.

4th round DT/DE Colby Wooden
5th round TE Cameron Latu
6th round RB Chris Rodriguez
7th round WR/PR Derius Davis

[Bolt4Knob]

LT Slater
LG Salyer
OC Linsley
RG Zion
RT Cody Mauch (2nd round)
TE Everett
WR KA
WR MW
WR JP
RB Ekeler
QB Herbert

CB Vato
CB ASJ
CB Clark Phillips (1st round)
S James
S Woods/Gilman
DE Bosa
DE Mack
DT SJD
DT AJ
LB K9
LB Daiyan Henley (3rd round)

All under the cap with about $8 million cap space for in-season FA's.

4th round DT/DE Colby Wooden
5th round TE Cameron Latu
6th round RB Chris Rodriguez
7th round WR/PR Derius Davis

WR in the 7th round - thats not going to work

Chargers NEED, not want, NEED a WR by the end of the second round

[Boltjolt]

LT Slater
LG Salyer
OC Linsley
RG Zion
RT Cody Mauch (2nd round)
TE Everett
WR KA
WR MW
WR JP
RB Ekeler
QB Herbert

CB Vato
CB ASJ
CB Clark Phillips (1st round)
S James
S Woods/Gilman
DE Bosa
DE Mack
DT SJD
DT AJ
LB K9
LB Daiyan Henley (3rd round)

All under the cap with about $8 million cap space for in-season FA's.

4th round DT/DE Colby Wooden
5th round TE Cameron Latu
6th round RB Chris Rodriguez
7th round WR/PR Derius Davis

I'd think both Rodriquez and Latu go higher than that. But ok, maybe they don't.

No WR who will contribute with speed? Ouch.
And no, doubt that guy won't see the field.

Man we got a lot of work to do on this team. Being strapped by the cap,....we need some better depth.

[richpjr]

Chargers have a Keenan Allen decision as they face salary-cap crunch

By Daniel Popper

The Chargers made a big financial bet in 2022. Last offseason, they signed four free agents to multiyear contracts averaging at least $6 million in annual value: cornerback J.C. Jackson, defensive linemen Austin Johnson and Sebastian Joseph-Day and tight end Gerald Everett. They traded a second-round draft pick to the Bears for Khalil Mack and took on an additional contract that ranks in the top five among edge rushers in average annual value.

The Spanos family wanted to win, and they opened up their checkbook to try and do so. They bet on coach Brandon Staley and the improvements he could make defensively with better talent. They bet on creating more support for Justin Herbert while the star quarterback was on his rookie deal. Injuries disrupted that vision before it could materialize. The Chargers still made the playoffs, but they lost in the first round. And I think it is fair to say that the financial commitment the Chargers made did not produce the results they were seeking.

Now, the Chargers have to deal with the ramifications of last offseason’s bet without even a playoff win to show for it.

They enter this offseason $20.38 million over the salary cap for 2023, according to Over The Cap. That over-the-cap figure increases to $23.43 million when you factor in the projected space the Chargers will need to pay their draft picks. Mack has the second-highest cap hit on the roster at $27.4 million. Jackson has the fifth-highest at $17 million. Johnson is seventh at $9 million. Joseph-Day is 10th at $9 million. Everett is 13th at $8.25 million. The roster moves the Chargers made last offseason are a big reason why they are facing these financial constraints this year.

The Chargers need to clear that $20.38 million to get cap compliant. They need to clear an additional $3.05 million to pay their draft picks. They need to clear even more space than that to re-sign internal free agents like linebacker Drue Tranquill, offensive tackle Trey Pipkins III and/or tight end Donald Parham Jr.And that is before we discuss the space they would need even to consider signing external free agents or create operating room for in-season singings, waiver claims or trades.

The Chargers have to be aggressive in creating space this offseason. And there are only so many ways they can do that.

This brings us to Keenan Allen.

Allen signed a four-year extension in September 2020. He has two years remaining on that deal, which runs through 2024. The financial structure of Allen’s contract makes him a candidate to be cut, and this has very little to do with how good he is as a player.

Allen, who turns 31 in April and missed seven games with a hamstring injury in 2022, can still be a highly productive player when healthy. He showed that down the stretch last season, catching 60 balls for 675 yards in his final eight games. He remains one of the league’s best route-runners. He remains one of the most effective third-down weapons in the league.

But there are unavoidable realities of operating within a league-mandated salary cap. For better or worse, teams are forced to move on from good players yearly because of salary-cap constraints. Front offices are constantly juggling short-term versus long-term ramifications. When you spend like the Chargers did last offseason, you will be faced with tough decisions in the ensuing offseasons. Allen poses one of those tough decisions.


The Chargers have four primary ways they can create cap space before the new league year in March:

1. Cut players

2. Trade players

3. Restructure existing contracts

4. Ask players to take pay cuts


First, a crash course in contract structures so we can more easily explain these different avenues.

Each season, an individual player counts for a certain amount of money against the cap — referred to as a “cap hit.” A player’s cap hit is a combination of his base salary plus any bonuses, like a signing bonus (money given to the player when he signs a contract), a roster bonus (money given to a player if he is on the roster by a specific date agreed to in the contract) and a workout bonus (money given to a player for attending a certain percentage of offseason workouts, as agreed to in the contract).

The player receives a signing bonus as soon as he signs his contract. However, that figure is then prorated — or, in other words, divided evenly — over each year of the contract (for a maximum of five years) for cap purposes. Allen’s signing bonus was $13.5 million. That was divided over the length of the contract, which was five years — the four-year extension from 2021 to 2024, plus the existing year of 2020. That came out to $2.7 million per year.

Allen’s 2023 cap hit is $21.7 million, according to OverTheCap — $15.5 million in base salary, $2.7 million in prorated signing bonus and a $3.5 million roster bonus due on March 21.

If the Chargers cut Allen, they will have a remaining dead-money charge of $6.9 million, which equates to the remaining prorated signing bonus of $5.4 million ($2.7 million in 2023 and $2.7 million in 2024) plus the $1.5 million in guaranteed salary.

Teams have the option of designating a cut as pre-June 1 or post-June 1. If a cut is designated as post-June 1, the team can spread the remaining signing bonus dead money over the remainder of the contract instead of incurring it all in that first year.

So if the Chargers designate Allen as a pre-June 1 cut, they would incur all $6.9 million of dead money in 2023. If the Chargers designate Allen as a post-June 1 cut, they would incur $4.2 million in dead money in 2023 ($2.7 million in signing bonus plus $1.5 million in remaining guaranteed salary) and then $2.7 million in dead money in 2024 (the remaining prorated signing bonus). Still $6.9 million in total, but spread out to create more immediate space in 2023.

The end result: The Chargers can save $14.8 million in space if they cut Allen with a pre-June 1 designation. They can save $17.5 million in space if they cut him with a post-June 1 designation. The difference, as you see, is $2.7 million.

Trading Allen is another option for creating space. When a team trades a player away, they still have to incur the remaining prorated signing bonus on their cap. The same rules apply as far as designating the trade as pre- or post-June 1. If the Chargers trade Allen, they would save $16.3 million in cap space. They would take on $5.4 million in dead money — the remaining signing bonus. If they designated it as a post-June 1 trade, they could spread that $5.4 over two seasons, increasing the 2023 savings by $2.7 million up to $19 million.

However, the Chargers would need to find a team willing to give up draft capital to take on the rest of Allen’s contract — a $15.5 million base salary and $3.5 million roster bonus in 2023 and a $18.1 million base salary and $5 million roster bonus in 2024. Allen’s salary is not guaranteed for 2024, so the team trading for him could move on after 2023 with no dead-money charge. Is one year of Allen worth a draft pick? Probably depends on the value of the pick. But the alternative is the team could take a chance and see if the Chargers cut Allen. If they do, that team could sign Allen to a more reasonable contract once he is on the open market.

The Chargers could also restructure Allen’s contract to create cap space, but all that does is defer cap charges to later seasons. When a contract is restructured, a team takes the base salary and converts it into a signing bonus that is then prorated over the length of the deal.

Mack’s contract is a good example. The Chargers agreed to that trade with the Bears under the pretense that they were going to restructure Mack’s contract once the trade became official. The teams agreed to the trade on March 10. The trade became official on March 16. The Chargers restructured Mack’s contract on March 19.

When the Chargers traded for Mack, he had a $17.55 million base salary for 2022. The Chargers took $13.5 million of that base salary and converted it into a signing bonus, which was then paid to Mack. For cap purposes, that $13.5 million was prorated over the three remaining years of the deal — $4.5 million in 2022, $4.5 million in 2023 and $4.5 million in 2024. Mack’s 2022 cap hit then dropped by $9 million (equal to the signing bonus prorated to 2023 and 2024).

His cap hits in 2023 and 2024, though, increased by $4.5 million each. And now, if the Chargers want to cut Mack, they have to incur that $9 million in signing bonus dead money. Restructuring a contract does not make money disappear from the cap. Quite the opposite — it just delays the point at which a team incurs the money on their cap.

In Allen’s case, the Chargers could save as much as $8.92 million in cap space by restructuring the contract. But that would mean more dead money if they decide to move on from Allen in 2024 — an increase from $2.7 million to $11.62 million.

The final option is asking Allen to take a pay cut. But there really is not much value in doing this as a player unless the player is determined to remain with his current organization. If the Chargers do approach Allen with a reduced salary, he would have to weigh the proposal against how much he could make on the open market if the Chargers cut him. And as I wrote above, Allen still is a productive player. He would likely bet on himself.

There is really one overarching question here: If the Chargers do not move on from Allen, how do they create the necessary cap space?

As I wrote in my Offseason Handbook, there are six players on the roster who, if cut, would provide the Chargers with at least $4 million in savings:

• Mack ($18.4 million in savings pre-June 1; $22.9 million post-June 1)
• Allen
• CB Michael Davis ($7.4 million)
• LG Matt Feiler ($6.5 million)
• C Corey Linsley ($5.3 million pre-June 1; $10.5 million post-June 1)
• TE Gerald Everett ($4.25 million)

If the Chargers cut Mack, they will have two rostered edge rushers with regular-season NFL experience: Joey Bosa and Chris Rumph II.

If they cut Davis, their starting cornerback group entering March will be Asante Samuel Jr., Ja’Sir Taylor and Deane Leonard.

Jackson’s status for 2023 is still up in the air as he rehabs from a torn patellar tendon.

They do not have a backup center on the roster currently, and Linsley is among the most important players on the team.

The Chargers can also restructure contracts. They can save up to $15.22 million if they restructure Bosa’s deal, according to Over The Cap. They can save up to $8.19 million if they restructure Jackson’s deal. They can save up to $6.22 million if they restructure Linsley’s deal.

But again, the more restructures a team does, the less flexibility it has in future seasons. Year over year, the Chargers consistently have among the lowest dead money charges in the league. That is not a coincidence. It is a roster-building strategy for general manager Tom Telesco and EVP of football administration/player finance Ed McGuire. Restructuring inevitably leads to more dead money.

If the Chargers want to keep Allen for 2023, the cap math starts to get difficult. Not impossible. But difficult.

Start by cutting Everett and Feiler to save $10.75 million. Restructure Bosa to save the max amount, and now the Chargers would be at $25.97 million in savings — just enough to pay their draft picks.

Where is the other space coming from?

Losing Allen, either via trade or cut, would hurt. The Chargers do have Mike Williams as a No. 1 receiver outside. Joshua Palmer has played well in the slot at times and is capable of taking on Allen’s role, but he is not yet close to Allen’s level. The Chargers would have to draft a receiver on Day 1 or 2 to round out their receiver room.

It is not an ideal scenario. But if you follow the money, it is the likeliest one.

[Fouts2herbert]

LT Slater
LG Salyer
OC Linsley
RG Zion
RT Cody Mauch (2nd round)
TE Everett
WR KA
WR MW
WR JP
RB Ekeler
QB Herbert

CB Vato
CB ASJ
CB Clark Phillips (1st round)
S James
S Woods/Gilman
DE Bosa
DE Mack
DT SJD
DT AJ
LB K9
LB Daiyan Henley (3rd round)

All under the cap with about $8 million cap space for in-season FA's.

4th round DT/DE Colby Wooden
5th round TE Cameron Latu
6th round RB Chris Rodriguez
7th round WR/PR Derius Davis

I honestly don’t get your approach, you have the team using a number 1 pick in a position where the team has a ton of money invested and has depth already…then instead of re-signing pipkins you want to start another raw small school kid at RT and add zero depth because that worked so well last year…I really think you need a different approach…

[Bolt4Knob]

Chargers have a Keenan Allen decision as they face salary-cap crunch

By Daniel Popper

The Chargers made a big financial bet in 2022. Last offseason, they signed four free agents to multiyear contracts averaging at least $6 million in annual value: cornerback J.C. Jackson, defensive linemen Austin Johnson and Sebastian Joseph-Day and tight end Gerald Everett. They traded a second-round draft pick to the Bears for Khalil Mack and took on an additional contract that ranks in the top five among edge rushers in average annual value.

The Spanos family wanted to win, and they opened up their checkbook to try and do so. They bet on coach Brandon Staley and the improvements he could make defensively with better talent. They bet on creating more support for Justin Herbert while the star quarterback was on his rookie deal. Injuries disrupted that vision before it could materialize. The Chargers still made the playoffs, but they lost in the first round. And I think it is fair to say that the financial commitment the Chargers made did not produce the results they were seeking.

Now, the Chargers have to deal with the ramifications of last offseason’s bet without even a playoff win to show for it.

They enter this offseason $20.38 million over the salary cap for 2023, according to Over The Cap. That over-the-cap figure increases to $23.43 million when you factor in the projected space the Chargers will need to pay their draft picks. Mack has the second-highest cap hit on the roster at $27.4 million. Jackson has the fifth-highest at $17 million. Johnson is seventh at $9 million. Joseph-Day is 10th at $9 million. Everett is 13th at $8.25 million. The roster moves the Chargers made last offseason are a big reason why they are facing these financial constraints this year.

The Chargers need to clear that $20.38 million to get cap compliant. They need to clear an additional $3.05 million to pay their draft picks. They need to clear even more space than that to re-sign internal free agents like linebacker Drue Tranquill, offensive tackle Trey Pipkins III and/or tight end Donald Parham Jr.And that is before we discuss the space they would need even to consider signing external free agents or create operating room for in-season singings, waiver claims or trades.

The Chargers have to be aggressive in creating space this offseason. And there are only so many ways they can do that.

This brings us to Keenan Allen.

Allen signed a four-year extension in September 2020. He has two years remaining on that deal, which runs through 2024. The financial structure of Allen’s contract makes him a candidate to be cut, and this has very little to do with how good he is as a player.

Allen, who turns 31 in April and missed seven games with a hamstring injury in 2022, can still be a highly productive player when healthy. He showed that down the stretch last season, catching 60 balls for 675 yards in his final eight games. He remains one of the league’s best route-runners. He remains one of the most effective third-down weapons in the league.

But there are unavoidable realities of operating within a league-mandated salary cap. For better or worse, teams are forced to move on from good players yearly because of salary-cap constraints. Front offices are constantly juggling short-term versus long-term ramifications. When you spend like the Chargers did last offseason, you will be faced with tough decisions in the ensuing offseasons. Allen poses one of those tough decisions.


The Chargers have four primary ways they can create cap space before the new league year in March:

1. Cut players

2. Trade players

3. Restructure existing contracts

4. Ask players to take pay cuts


First, a crash course in contract structures so we can more easily explain these different avenues.

Each season, an individual player counts for a certain amount of money against the cap — referred to as a “cap hit.” A player’s cap hit is a combination of his base salary plus any bonuses, like a signing bonus (money given to the player when he signs a contract), a roster bonus (money given to a player if he is on the roster by a specific date agreed to in the contract) and a workout bonus (money given to a player for attending a certain percentage of offseason workouts, as agreed to in the contract).

The player receives a signing bonus as soon as he signs his contract. However, that figure is then prorated — or, in other words, divided evenly — over each year of the contract (for a maximum of five years) for cap purposes. Allen’s signing bonus was $13.5 million. That was divided over the length of the contract, which was five years — the four-year extension from 2021 to 2024, plus the existing year of 2020. That came out to $2.7 million per year.

Allen’s 2023 cap hit is $21.7 million, according to OverTheCap — $15.5 million in base salary, $2.7 million in prorated signing bonus and a $3.5 million roster bonus due on March 21.

If the Chargers cut Allen, they will have a remaining dead-money charge of $6.9 million, which equates to the remaining prorated signing bonus of $5.4 million ($2.7 million in 2023 and $2.7 million in 2024) plus the $1.5 million in guaranteed salary.

Teams have the option of designating a cut as pre-June 1 or post-June 1. If a cut is designated as post-June 1, the team can spread the remaining signing bonus dead money over the remainder of the contract instead of incurring it all in that first year.

So if the Chargers designate Allen as a pre-June 1 cut, they would incur all $6.9 million of dead money in 2023. If the Chargers designate Allen as a post-June 1 cut, they would incur $4.2 million in dead money in 2023 ($2.7 million in signing bonus plus $1.5 million in remaining guaranteed salary) and then $2.7 million in dead money in 2024 (the remaining prorated signing bonus). Still $6.9 million in total, but spread out to create more immediate space in 2023.

The end result: The Chargers can save $14.8 million in space if they cut Allen with a pre-June 1 designation. They can save $17.5 million in space if they cut him with a post-June 1 designation. The difference, as you see, is $2.7 million.

Trading Allen is another option for creating space. When a team trades a player away, they still have to incur the remaining prorated signing bonus on their cap. The same rules apply as far as designating the trade as pre- or post-June 1. If the Chargers trade Allen, they would save $16.3 million in cap space. They would take on $5.4 million in dead money — the remaining signing bonus. If they designated it as a post-June 1 trade, they could spread that $5.4 over two seasons, increasing the 2023 savings by $2.7 million up to $19 million.

However, the Chargers would need to find a team willing to give up draft capital to take on the rest of Allen’s contract — a $15.5 million base salary and $3.5 million roster bonus in 2023 and a $18.1 million base salary and $5 million roster bonus in 2024. Allen’s salary is not guaranteed for 2024, so the team trading for him could move on after 2023 with no dead-money charge. Is one year of Allen worth a draft pick? Probably depends on the value of the pick. But the alternative is the team could take a chance and see if the Chargers cut Allen. If they do, that team could sign Allen to a more reasonable contract once he is on the open market.

The Chargers could also restructure Allen’s contract to create cap space, but all that does is defer cap charges to later seasons. When a contract is restructured, a team takes the base salary and converts it into a signing bonus that is then prorated over the length of the deal.

Mack’s contract is a good example. The Chargers agreed to that trade with the Bears under the pretense that they were going to restructure Mack’s contract once the trade became official. The teams agreed to the trade on March 10. The trade became official on March 16. The Chargers restructured Mack’s contract on March 19.

When the Chargers traded for Mack, he had a $17.55 million base salary for 2022. The Chargers took $13.5 million of that base salary and converted it into a signing bonus, which was then paid to Mack. For cap purposes, that $13.5 million was prorated over the three remaining years of the deal — $4.5 million in 2022, $4.5 million in 2023 and $4.5 million in 2024. Mack’s 2022 cap hit then dropped by $9 million (equal to the signing bonus prorated to 2023 and 2024).

His cap hits in 2023 and 2024, though, increased by $4.5 million each. And now, if the Chargers want to cut Mack, they have to incur that $9 million in signing bonus dead money. Restructuring a contract does not make money disappear from the cap. Quite the opposite — it just delays the point at which a team incurs the money on their cap.

In Allen’s case, the Chargers could save as much as $8.92 million in cap space by restructuring the contract. But that would mean more dead money if they decide to move on from Allen in 2024 — an increase from $2.7 million to $11.62 million.

The final option is asking Allen to take a pay cut. But there really is not much value in doing this as a player unless the player is determined to remain with his current organization. If the Chargers do approach Allen with a reduced salary, he would have to weigh the proposal against how much he could make on the open market if the Chargers cut him. And as I wrote above, Allen still is a productive player. He would likely bet on himself.

There is really one overarching question here: If the Chargers do not move on from Allen, how do they create the necessary cap space?

As I wrote in my Offseason Handbook, there are six players on the roster who, if cut, would provide the Chargers with at least $4 million in savings:

• Mack ($18.4 million in savings pre-June 1; $22.9 million post-June 1)
• Allen
• CB Michael Davis ($7.4 million)
• LG Matt Feiler ($6.5 million)
• C Corey Linsley ($5.3 million pre-June 1; $10.5 million post-June 1)
• TE Gerald Everett ($4.25 million)

If the Chargers cut Mack, they will have two rostered edge rushers with regular-season NFL experience: Joey Bosa and Chris Rumph II.

If they cut Davis, their starting cornerback group entering March will be Asante Samuel Jr., Ja’Sir Taylor and Deane Leonard.

Jackson’s status for 2023 is still up in the air as he rehabs from a torn patellar tendon.

They do not have a backup center on the roster currently, and Linsley is among the most important players on the team.

The Chargers can also restructure contracts. They can save up to $15.22 million if they restructure Bosa’s deal, according to Over The Cap. They can save up to $8.19 million if they restructure Jackson’s deal. They can save up to $6.22 million if they restructure Linsley’s deal.

But again, the more restructures a team does, the less flexibility it has in future seasons. Year over year, the Chargers consistently have among the lowest dead money charges in the league. That is not a coincidence. It is a roster-building strategy for general manager Tom Telesco and EVP of football administration/player finance Ed McGuire. Restructuring inevitably leads to more dead money.

If the Chargers want to keep Allen for 2023, the cap math starts to get difficult. Not impossible. But difficult.

Start by cutting Everett and Feiler to save $10.75 million. Restructure Bosa to save the max amount, and now the Chargers would be at $25.97 million in savings — just enough to pay their draft picks.

Where is the other space coming from?

Losing Allen, either via trade or cut, would hurt. The Chargers do have Mike Williams as a No. 1 receiver outside. Joshua Palmer has played well in the slot at times and is capable of taking on Allen’s role, but he is not yet close to Allen’s level. The Chargers would have to draft a receiver on Day 1 or 2 to round out their receiver room.

It is not an ideal scenario. But if you follow the money, it is the likeliest one.

Popper is preaching to the choir. When I came up with why the Chargers could move on from Allen - Popper laid it out very well

Restructuring is not smart as you are just taking away from future cap space. And the Chargers need future cap space
Maybe he wants to remain with the team but he he probably only gets 10m in total from the Chargers - maybe part salary, part signing bonus so they push say 4-5m down the road - maybe. But as Popper points out, since 3.5m of the Allen salary is a roster bonus, the Chargers do not get relief from that. So they can only mess with the 15.5m - and that just pushes dollars down the road

I think Allen would bet on himself in the open market. Granted if the chargers could get a 4th or 5th for him, take it. Granted, that still means finding about 9m of cap space as the Chargers would still need to be under the cap on the first day of the league year before trading Allen

Everett - 4m
Feiler and Hopkins - 8m
They can extend Vato and Ekeler a bit to create it

Than when the league year opens -- they can trade Allen to get the cap space
And I think if they can do all of this without pushing out Bosa - that is the smart long term play

[Air Coryell]

Chargers have a Keenan Allen decision as they face salary-cap crunch

By Daniel Popper

The Chargers made a big financial bet in 2022. Last offseason, they signed four free agents to multiyear contracts averaging at least $6 million in annual value: cornerback J.C. Jackson, defensive linemen Austin Johnson and Sebastian Joseph-Day and tight end Gerald Everett. They traded a second-round draft pick to the Bears for Khalil Mack and took on an additional contract that ranks in the top five among edge rushers in average annual value.

The Spanos family wanted to win, and they opened up their checkbook to try and do so. They bet on coach Brandon Staley and the improvements he could make defensively with better talent. They bet on creating more support for Justin Herbert while the star quarterback was on his rookie deal. Injuries disrupted that vision before it could materialize. The Chargers still made the playoffs, but they lost in the first round. And I think it is fair to say that the financial commitment the Chargers made did not produce the results they were seeking.

Now, the Chargers have to deal with the ramifications of last offseason’s bet without even a playoff win to show for it.

They enter this offseason $20.38 million over the salary cap for 2023, according to Over The Cap. That over-the-cap figure increases to $23.43 million when you factor in the projected space the Chargers will need to pay their draft picks. Mack has the second-highest cap hit on the roster at $27.4 million. Jackson has the fifth-highest at $17 million. Johnson is seventh at $9 million. Joseph-Day is 10th at $9 million. Everett is 13th at $8.25 million. The roster moves the Chargers made last offseason are a big reason why they are facing these financial constraints this year.

The Chargers need to clear that $20.38 million to get cap compliant. They need to clear an additional $3.05 million to pay their draft picks. They need to clear even more space than that to re-sign internal free agents like linebacker Drue Tranquill, offensive tackle Trey Pipkins III and/or tight end Donald Parham Jr.And that is before we discuss the space they would need even to consider signing external free agents or create operating room for in-season singings, waiver claims or trades.

The Chargers have to be aggressive in creating space this offseason. And there are only so many ways they can do that.

This brings us to Keenan Allen.

Allen signed a four-year extension in September 2020. He has two years remaining on that deal, which runs through 2024. The financial structure of Allen’s contract makes him a candidate to be cut, and this has very little to do with how good he is as a player.

Allen, who turns 31 in April and missed seven games with a hamstring injury in 2022, can still be a highly productive player when healthy. He showed that down the stretch last season, catching 60 balls for 675 yards in his final eight games. He remains one of the league’s best route-runners. He remains one of the most effective third-down weapons in the league.

But there are unavoidable realities of operating within a league-mandated salary cap. For better or worse, teams are forced to move on from good players yearly because of salary-cap constraints. Front offices are constantly juggling short-term versus long-term ramifications. When you spend like the Chargers did last offseason, you will be faced with tough decisions in the ensuing offseasons. Allen poses one of those tough decisions.


The Chargers have four primary ways they can create cap space before the new league year in March:

1. Cut players

2. Trade players

3. Restructure existing contracts

4. Ask players to take pay cuts


First, a crash course in contract structures so we can more easily explain these different avenues.

Each season, an individual player counts for a certain amount of money against the cap — referred to as a “cap hit.” A player’s cap hit is a combination of his base salary plus any bonuses, like a signing bonus (money given to the player when he signs a contract), a roster bonus (money given to a player if he is on the roster by a specific date agreed to in the contract) and a workout bonus (money given to a player for attending a certain percentage of offseason workouts, as agreed to in the contract).

The player receives a signing bonus as soon as he signs his contract. However, that figure is then prorated — or, in other words, divided evenly — over each year of the contract (for a maximum of five years) for cap purposes. Allen’s signing bonus was $13.5 million. That was divided over the length of the contract, which was five years — the four-year extension from 2021 to 2024, plus the existing year of 2020. That came out to $2.7 million per year.

Allen’s 2023 cap hit is $21.7 million, according to OverTheCap — $15.5 million in base salary, $2.7 million in prorated signing bonus and a $3.5 million roster bonus due on March 21.

If the Chargers cut Allen, they will have a remaining dead-money charge of $6.9 million, which equates to the remaining prorated signing bonus of $5.4 million ($2.7 million in 2023 and $2.7 million in 2024) plus the $1.5 million in guaranteed salary.

Teams have the option of designating a cut as pre-June 1 or post-June 1. If a cut is designated as post-June 1, the team can spread the remaining signing bonus dead money over the remainder of the contract instead of incurring it all in that first year.

So if the Chargers designate Allen as a pre-June 1 cut, they would incur all $6.9 million of dead money in 2023. If the Chargers designate Allen as a post-June 1 cut, they would incur $4.2 million in dead money in 2023 ($2.7 million in signing bonus plus $1.5 million in remaining guaranteed salary) and then $2.7 million in dead money in 2024 (the remaining prorated signing bonus). Still $6.9 million in total, but spread out to create more immediate space in 2023.

The end result: The Chargers can save $14.8 million in space if they cut Allen with a pre-June 1 designation. They can save $17.5 million in space if they cut him with a post-June 1 designation. The difference, as you see, is $2.7 million.

Trading Allen is another option for creating space. When a team trades a player away, they still have to incur the remaining prorated signing bonus on their cap. The same rules apply as far as designating the trade as pre- or post-June 1. If the Chargers trade Allen, they would save $16.3 million in cap space. They would take on $5.4 million in dead money — the remaining signing bonus. If they designated it as a post-June 1 trade, they could spread that $5.4 over two seasons, increasing the 2023 savings by $2.7 million up to $19 million.

However, the Chargers would need to find a team willing to give up draft capital to take on the rest of Allen’s contract — a $15.5 million base salary and $3.5 million roster bonus in 2023 and a $18.1 million base salary and $5 million roster bonus in 2024. Allen’s salary is not guaranteed for 2024, so the team trading for him could move on after 2023 with no dead-money charge. Is one year of Allen worth a draft pick? Probably depends on the value of the pick. But the alternative is the team could take a chance and see if the Chargers cut Allen. If they do, that team could sign Allen to a more reasonable contract once he is on the open market.

The Chargers could also restructure Allen’s contract to create cap space, but all that does is defer cap charges to later seasons. When a contract is restructured, a team takes the base salary and converts it into a signing bonus that is then prorated over the length of the deal.

Mack’s contract is a good example. The Chargers agreed to that trade with the Bears under the pretense that they were going to restructure Mack’s contract once the trade became official. The teams agreed to the trade on March 10. The trade became official on March 16. The Chargers restructured Mack’s contract on March 19.

When the Chargers traded for Mack, he had a $17.55 million base salary for 2022. The Chargers took $13.5 million of that base salary and converted it into a signing bonus, which was then paid to Mack. For cap purposes, that $13.5 million was prorated over the three remaining years of the deal — $4.5 million in 2022, $4.5 million in 2023 and $4.5 million in 2024. Mack’s 2022 cap hit then dropped by $9 million (equal to the signing bonus prorated to 2023 and 2024).

His cap hits in 2023 and 2024, though, increased by $4.5 million each. And now, if the Chargers want to cut Mack, they have to incur that $9 million in signing bonus dead money. Restructuring a contract does not make money disappear from the cap. Quite the opposite — it just delays the point at which a team incurs the money on their cap.

In Allen’s case, the Chargers could save as much as $8.92 million in cap space by restructuring the contract. But that would mean more dead money if they decide to move on from Allen in 2024 — an increase from $2.7 million to $11.62 million.

The final option is asking Allen to take a pay cut. But there really is not much value in doing this as a player unless the player is determined to remain with his current organization. If the Chargers do approach Allen with a reduced salary, he would have to weigh the proposal against how much he could make on the open market if the Chargers cut him. And as I wrote above, Allen still is a productive player. He would likely bet on himself.

There is really one overarching question here: If the Chargers do not move on from Allen, how do they create the necessary cap space?

As I wrote in my Offseason Handbook, there are six players on the roster who, if cut, would provide the Chargers with at least $4 million in savings:

• Mack ($18.4 million in savings pre-June 1; $22.9 million post-June 1)
• Allen
• CB Michael Davis ($7.4 million)
• LG Matt Feiler ($6.5 million)
• C Corey Linsley ($5.3 million pre-June 1; $10.5 million post-June 1)
• TE Gerald Everett ($4.25 million)

If the Chargers cut Mack, they will have two rostered edge rushers with regular-season NFL experience: Joey Bosa and Chris Rumph II.

If they cut Davis, their starting cornerback group entering March will be Asante Samuel Jr., Ja’Sir Taylor and Deane Leonard.

Jackson’s status for 2023 is still up in the air as he rehabs from a torn patellar tendon.

They do not have a backup center on the roster currently, and Linsley is among the most important players on the team.

The Chargers can also restructure contracts. They can save up to $15.22 million if they restructure Bosa’s deal, according to Over The Cap. They can save up to $8.19 million if they restructure Jackson’s deal. They can save up to $6.22 million if they restructure Linsley’s deal.

But again, the more restructures a team does, the less flexibility it has in future seasons. Year over year, the Chargers consistently have among the lowest dead money charges in the league. That is not a coincidence. It is a roster-building strategy for general manager Tom Telesco and EVP of football administration/player finance Ed McGuire. Restructuring inevitably leads to more dead money.

If the Chargers want to keep Allen for 2023, the cap math starts to get difficult. Not impossible. But difficult.

Start by cutting Everett and Feiler to save $10.75 million. Restructure Bosa to save the max amount, and now the Chargers would be at $25.97 million in savings — just enough to pay their draft picks.

Where is the other space coming from?

Losing Allen, either via trade or cut, would hurt. The Chargers do have Mike Williams as a No. 1 receiver outside. Joshua Palmer has played well in the slot at times and is capable of taking on Allen’s role, but he is not yet close to Allen’s level. The Chargers would have to draft a receiver on Day 1 or 2 to round out their receiver room.

It is not an ideal scenario. But if you follow the money, it is the likeliest one.

This is a mess. Thanks TT. That is why you never pay big money for WR, DB or RB. Money needs to go in the OL and DL. JC and MW contracts from last year are hurting our chances to win the big one. That is why the draft is so important financially,

[Bolt4Knob]

This is a mess. Thanks TT. That is why you never pay big money for WR, DB or RB. Money needs to go in the OL and DL. JC and MW contracts from last year are hurting our chances to win the big one. That is why the draft is so important financially,

It truly was a go for it offseason
They picked up the highest paid Edge rusher and hte highest paid CB, paid a lot to Mike Williams
and yes injuries happened -

Thats why I am okay with moving on from Allen, testing the Bosa trade market. As the Chargers can go one of two ways
maybe make these two hard choices but keep the window open
or start the cycle of kicking the can

[Fouts2herbert]

I have to imagine that the meetings with staley, telesco, and moore will be taking place soon if they haven’t started already…when is the deadline for them to get under the cap? March 1st?

[Bolt4Knob]

I have to imagine that the meetings with staley, telesco, and moore will be taking place soon if they haven’t started already…when is the deadline for them to get under the cap? March 1st?

Around March 15th is when the new league year opens