Mike Williams reportedly set to be released

This isn’t goodbye, it’s “I’ll see you later”

Ian Rapoport just reported the first domino falling for the Chargers cap culling: Mike Williams is officially set to be released.

We are in very, very tricky waters with the cap situation now. Before Alohi Gilman, Will Dissly, and Gus Edwards were signed, the Chargers were just over $19million over the salary cap. That meant that Mike Williams’ $20million cap savings would get the Chargers compliant in a single move.

It’s important to note that the Chargers are still hoping to bring Mike back. It’s very rare for a free agent to sign a decent deal with an external team so quickly after tearing their ACL. Mike’s best bet is likely being patient through this process, and re-signing with the Chargers when they’ve cleared cap and can backload a one-year deal with attainable incentives.

If Alohi’s deal isn’t processed until later today or tomorrow, it is presumable that this is the only transaction that needs to be made before the Chargers attempt to execute a trade with Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, or (less likely) Keenan Allen. Assuming the recent signings are processed later today, that will create a short window for the Chargers to process a trade to clear more room for these players.

However, there is another lever available to the Bolts. If they decide to restructure Derwin James, that will open up over $7million in cap space, just enough to bridge the gap temporarily to get those new contracts on the books. From there, Joe Hortiz will have more flexibility to work the trade market as his leverage increases with each EDGE removed from free agency, or as he works to create more cap space by extending Keenan Allen.

I broke this down this morning… now I believe it’s just a matter of whether or not there is already a trade in place that will determine if Derwin is restructured or not.