REPORT: Chargers Release Offensive Guard Orlando Franklin

Happy Monday! The Chargers continue to make moves that make sense this offseason.

Orlando Franklin came to San Diego on a pretty big money free agent contract. As of this morning, he was the fifth-highest-paid player on the Chargers for the 2017 season.

Not anymore.

Franklin was not good while in San Diego. He missed 6 games over the past two seasons, and at his best was average at left guard. Franklin was supposed to be a solid veteran presence on the line but wound up struggling to not be a liability.

Not only did Franklin play poorly, but the team is obviously going in a different direction with the offensive line. The Chargers drafted Forrest Lamp and Dan Feeney, who both excel at pulling and making athletic blocks from the offensive guard positions. Franklin just can’t do those things.

The writing was on the wall that Franklin’s days as a Charger were numbered, and there had been rumblings that the Chargers were trying to trade the 29-year-old offensive guard, but it looks like there weren’t any takers and the team bit the bullet and released him.

According to Over the Cap, the move is going to create $4.8M in dead cap space, but free up $2.8M overall. With the Roster pretty much set at this point, and the Chargers already at about $10M in cap space currently, this move makes the most sense as it gives the Chargers the most cap space next year. If they designate him as a post-June 1 cut, it will free up $6M this year, but lower the available cap space next year by $4M compared to a clean cut now.

UPDATE: Looks like OTC has looked at the numbers again and corrected some numbers on Franklin. Cutting him now actually costs them $700k in cap space, designating him post June 1 will free up $2.5M this year. The effect on next year’s cap remains the same, cutting him now would give them $4M more to work with next year over a post June 1 cut.