The Los Angeles Chargers enter this offseason with a salary cap space of slightly north of $48 million, marking the most that Tom Telesco has had since taking over as general manager in 2013.
Telesco will be using a good chunk of that money to re-sign some of their notable in-house players like tight end Hunter Henry, as well as working on an extension with defensive end Joey Bosa.
Likely to want to be aggressive in signing a few free agents to bolster the already talented roster, Telesco might have to do some wheeling and dealing to clear up some cap space after negotiating contracts with some of their own.
Should Telesco choose to do so, that would require releasing some of their own players that are still under contract.
NFL Media’s Gregg Rosenthal released his list of potential cut candidates, and on that list were offensive tackle Russell Okung and linebacker Thomas Davis.
Here is what Rosenthal had to say about Okung:
A smarter man than I told me to take Okung off this list because left tackles are so hard to find. But a move seems possible, if only because Okung has the Chargers’ highest cap figure ($17 million) and played under 300 snaps last season.
It wasn’t the year that Okung was hoping for. The 32-year old suffered a pulmonary embolism last June, which kept him out of the action until late October. When he returned to the starting lineup he was far from perfect, finishing with five penalties, including three holding calls and two false starts in six games. Okung was also banged up with a groin injury a few games after returning, which eventually ended his campaign.
With Okung’s medical and injury history, there’s certainly reason to be concerned moving forward. If Okung, who has the highest cap figure on the team, was released, the team would save $13 million in cap. Left tackles are hard to replace and Okung has proven to be a key staple on the offensive side of the ball when he’s healthy. Unless the Chargers have a plan to sign a proven veteran tackle in free agency, I don’t think they will let him go.
As for Davis, cutting him would save $5 million in cap. The 36-year old led the team in tackles last season (112), but he wasn’t efficient in pass coverage. With the absences to safeties Derwin James and Adrian Phillips, Davis had to take on a bigger role in that department. Los Angeles could move on from Davis to start getting younger at the position and giving his role to Kyzir White, but the team covets him for his locker room presence.