With significant cap space, the Chargers face critical decisions. Investing in Derwin James now offers stability and secures a vital defensive anchor for future Super Bowl runs.
The Los Angeles Chargers have the third most salary cap space of any team in the NFL this offseason. The team has, as of this moment, about $82M in space left before they get to the NFL's salary cap of $303.5M. Which is to say they have almost one-third of the cap available to them heading into free agency.
According to Over the Cap, the only teams with more cap space currently are the Tennessee Titans and the Las Vegas Raiders. Those two teams are in different stages of rebuilding, with the Raiders holding the #1 overall pick and the Titans holding the #4 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft as a result of their poor records last season. Both teams have hired new head coaches as a part of their offseason.
The Chargers are in a very different place than those teams. They went to the playoffs last year and have aspirations of making it to the Super Bowl this year at SoFi Stadium.
Everyone is wondering what the Chargers are going to attempt to do with that money.
Might they chase Tyler Linderbaum, the Baltimore Ravens who has been to the Pro Bowl each of the last three seasons and is still only 25-years old? They might! The Ravens seemingly don't have enough cap space to compete with an offer from the Chargers. Linderbaum plus a healthy Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater would certainly make the offensive line look better.
Maybe they'll use their cap space as a dumping ground, trading picks to a rebuilding team for a big contract that would appear unnecessary on a bad team. Maxx Crosby's name has been brought up in some trade rumors.
Perhaps they will take the flexibility of being so far below the cap and use it to slap the franchise tag on Odafe Oweh, should they not be able to re-sign him through traditional means.
It could end up being a combination of all of these things.
I would argue that they should consider spending at least some of that money on Derwin James.
James is not a free agent until next offseason, but there is maybe only one player on the entire Chargers roster that is more important to the team's success (that being the QB, Justin Herbert).
Herbert is signed with the Chargers through the 2029 season, when he will be 31-years old. Derwin James will be 30-years old when he becomes a free agent after the 2026 NFL season, but he has shown no signs of slowing down.
I guarantee you that Derwin and his agent are aware that he's heading into a contract year. Star players typically don't like to play out contract years because they know they'll be left behind by the organization should they pick up some sort of major injury. Just by having the star player play on the final year of a deal, you risk hurting the relationship.
Not signing Derwin James to an extension in 2026 wouldn't be exactly the same as when the team released Rodney Harrison at roughly the same age, but it would have the same horrible potential of watching him play his best football against the Chargers instead of for them.
I think the Chargers should be talking to Derwin now and laying out a couple of different contract terms to see how he'll react to them. In one scenario, they could front-load a long-term contract to take advantage of the cap space they have now. That would give them more roster flexibility to build around James in the future, and would (in theory) align his pay with what could be declining production in his mid-30s.