The Chargers’ salary cap situation got a bit of relief on Thursday when the team restructured the contracts of receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams to save nearly $14.5 million heading into free agency.
#Chargers Cap Conversions
Converted $10.92M of Mike Williams' 2023 salary into signing bonus.
Converted $14.335M of Keenan Allen's 2023 salary + a $3.5M roster bonus into signing bonus.
Savings: $14,377,500
Top 51 Space: -$6Mhttps://t.co/aq9Yqke8mC— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 9, 2023
Even with this move, the Chargers still have work to do to get under the cap threshold before the regular season. Their decision to convert Allen and Williams’ salaries to bonuses is a swisemove by Los Angeles’ front office, though the increased flexibility won’t come without some strings attached.
Allen and Williams are effectively un-cuttable in this arrangement, and the team is fully committed to keeping both receivers on the roster through the end of the 2023 season. Should they need to part ways with either player, they would absorb the entirety of the bonus money against their salary cap, causing massive dead-money numbers that would not be able to be recouped.
While this risk certainly seems worth the reward at this juncture, the Chargers will need to do everything in their power to ensure that this move doesn’t come back to bite them throughout the 2023 season. Having their top two wideouts on the roster is undoubtedly an advantage for Los Angeles. Still, situations and circumstances will need to play into their favor to ensure that their decisions in March don’t affect their ability to contend in December and January.
