Do you believe this player on the Los Angeles Chargers is being overpaid?
The Los Angeles Chargers enter this offseason with the most salary cap space in many years.
However, they have one of the league’s most overpaid players in the league playing defensive end if a new piece by Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski is to be believed.
Recently, Sobleski compiled a list of the most overpaid players on each team heading into free agency. Each player listed isn’t necessarily getting paid the most, but it’s based on compensation in relation to performance.
For the Chargers, it’s Melvin Ingram, who’s on a deal for four years worth $64 million with $34 million being guaranteed.
Here is what Sobleski said about Ingram in his explanation of why he made the list:
With Philip Rivers no longer part of the Los Angeles Chargers organization, only one player on the team’s roster averages over $11.3 million annually. Melvin Ingram III is now the Chargers’ highest-paid player.
His inclusion isn’t an indictment of his recent play, though he registered only seven sacks in each of the last two seasons. It’s a statement of where he’ll likely go from this point forward. Ingram turns 31 years old in April.
Right now, Joey Bosa is the Chargers’ dominant pass-rusher. Ingram is still being paid like an elite edge-rusher when he’s not. His $16 million annual salary is in the same range or more as those earned by J.J. Watt, Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter.
Ingram may have made three consecutive Pro Bowls, but it’s difficult to place him among the league’s upper-echelon edge-defenders.
Despite making three straight Pro Bowl appearances, Ingram finds himself on this list. But his production might not match how much he should actually be getting paid.
Like Sobleski said, Ingram’s annual salary of $16 million is in the same range of J.J. Watt, Za’Darius Smith, among other elite pass-rushers. But him failing to record 10 or more sacks the past two seasons is an indication that it might be too much for his actual output on the field.
It’s possible the Chargers could rework the 30-year-old’s contract given Ingram is in the last year of a four-year deal, which he signed back in 2017. But I think Los Angeles will simply allow him to play out the final season and determine his future based on his production in 2020.
L.A. will also have to figure out what they are going to do with his teammate, Joey Bosa, who is also due for a big contract extension. Whether or not he will get it this offseason looms.
