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The NFL has announced what their salary cap will be for the upcoming season, jumping almost $12 million from last year’s cap up to $167 million for each team.
That’s good news for the Los Angeles Chargers, who need to sign some of their players or risk backsliding after a 5-11 season. The bad news is that they used just about all of their cap space last season, leaving them with very little rollover cap space....giving them the lowest salary cap in the league in 2017.
The salary cap is set at $167M per team. This is the 4th consecutive year it's ⬆️ $10M+, which means more for players. #securethebag pic.twitter.com/SbPXhJRhwW
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) March 1, 2017
As of right now, the Chargers have about $5.5 million in cap space (after slapping the franchise tag on Melvin Ingram). That’s not going to be enough, which means the team is either going to restructure some contracts (probable) and/or release some guys (also probable).
Here are the likeliest candidates for release, along with how much in cap savings the team would get by releasing them:
- D.J. Fluker - $8.8 million
- Antonio Gates - $4.9 million
- Darrell Stuckey - $2.9 million
Happy offseason!