Predicting the San Diego Chargers biggest surprise cut

It seems like almost every year the San Diego Chargers (and pretty much every other team) will release a player that the average fan thought was a lock to make the final 53-man roster. Attempting to predict who that will be in 2016 is doubtless a fool's errand, but it's late May and guessing at things is essentially all we have available to us to do at this time of year.

With that in mind, I want to first address a player that I fully expect to see cut that I will not consider surprising enough to act as an answer to the question posed in the title of this article. With the drafting of Max Tuerk and the signing of Matt Slauson, Trevor Robinson is done. If they cut him, they will save $2.3 million in cap space. Add to that the fact that Robinson was one of the worst players in the league last year and you have an obvious cut candidate. It was reported over and over the last offseason how much the coaching staff loved Robinson but that's simply not going to be enough to save him now.

The surprise cut, as I see it, will most likely be one Sean Lissemore. He was a starter at times last year and currently he projects as a backup at multiple spots on the defensive line. However, there is $1.75 million in cap space to be saved should the Chargers cut him loose. General Manager Tom Telesco likes to make late offseason free agent signings and that cap space could come in handy. An earlier cut for Lissemore is also made more likely by the fact that teams often try to give their respected veterans a better chance at latching on elsewhere by freeing them up earlier before training camps.

If you wanted to get crazy, it's theoretically possible that the Chargers could release Brandon Flowers. However, there are no cap savings and although he was a poor performer last year, he still projects as one of the better corners on this team behind Jason Verrett.