It is nearly 8 am on the West Coast and the Los Angeles Chargers haven’t taken any concrete action toward alleviating their cap overage. In fact they added three more players. They retained safety Alohi Gilman and signed running back Gus Edwards and tight end Will Dissly. All smart and needed moves, but they now currently sit at $26 million over the cap with Dissly’s contract numbers still pending.
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The Clock is Ticking for the Los Angeles Chargers
At the time of the publication of this article, the Chargers will have a little 29 hours to work out restructures, trades, and cuts among their top cap hits, Joey Bosa, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, and Khalil Mack. Together they make up about 56 percent of the total salary cap.
Clearing the space isn’t a problem. They could cut Mike Williams and Khalil Mack and be in the black by $17.3 million. If they were interested in do that they would have already pulled the triggers. It has been reported that they are taking trade calls on all four players listed above.
2024 Los Angeles Chargers Free Agency Tracker
But as the clock tick tick ticks down to 1 pm PST on March 13th, the leverage the Chargers have to execute a trade for any of these players is slipping away with each passing hour. Teams can now start low-balling offers if they want to keep any of these players from hitting the open market. Keep in mind that we just saw arguably the best pass rusher in the league, Brian Burns traded for a 2024 second and 2025 fifth-round pick.
Furthermore, as they patiently wait for the right offer to come across their desk, free agent assets are dropping like flys to other teams. A cursory glance at the Chargers depth chart shows that the Chargers still have very real needs at defensive line, cornerback, center, and linebacker. And depending on how these situations pan out, edge rushers and wide receivers become huge areas of need.
Patience is a virtue, except in the NFL.
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