Chargers surprisingly cut highly paid LB Donald Butler
Butler's declining play and high salary likely brought this on, but it's still a surprise because of how much guaranteed money was left on his deal.
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In a somewhat surprising move, the San Diego Chargers have parted ways with inside linebacker Donald Butler. Butler announced the move on his Twitter account, where he issued a statement thanking San Diego fans, his teammates and ownership for their support during his six years with the team.
— Donald Butler (@DAButler56) March 3, 2016
Butler, who is still only 27 years old, signed a huge new contract with the Chargers just two years ago. His seven-year, $51.8 million deal was the second-largest total dollar value for any inside linebacker in the league at the time it was signed (Luke Kuechly signed a bigger deal a year later, making it the third-largest), and the average annual value of $7.4 million was the sixth-largest.
Butler struggled to reach his previous level of play over the last two seasons, though, never quite living up to that large contract. Tackles aren't everything, of course, but Butler averaged 91 combined solo and assisted tackles through his first three NFL seasons (he sat out all of 2010) and that number slipped all the way to 56 over the last two years, per Pro-Football-Reference.
He was set to count for $9.28 million on San Diego's books for the 2016 season, a number the Chargers obviously found too high. Considering they have drafted an inside linebacker in the second round of each of the last two drafts (Manti Te'o and Denzel Perryman), maybe it should be less of a surprise that Butler was sent packing.
It seems likely that the Chargers will designate Butler as a post-June 1 release. If he's released outright, that cap number more than doubles from $9.28 million to $18.69 million. If he's a post-June 1 release, it drops down to $4.63 million for 2016, which saves the Chargers around $4.65 million. However, the remainder of Butler's guaranteed money would accelerate onto next year's cap.
Because of his age (27) and not-so-distant history of high-level play, it seems likely that Butler will be able to catch on elsewhere in free agency this offseason. He won't be compensated as highly as he was with the Chargers, but depending on where he goes, he can get a chance to prove that he's worth that kind of money again.
