I’m going to track the Chargers cap weekly this season.
For in-season tracking, I am not withholding any budget for in-season injury replacements, trades, free agent signings, or practice squad activations. I will just track those things as they hit the cap during the season. That said, at this point in the season, most of those events are ahead, so it would be appropriate to assume $3M to $4M of the available cap space will go to those expenses.
Week 1
On 9/3/2025, my tracker showed the Chargers with $16,122,380 in available cap space, but, at that time, I was only showing 52 players on the active roster.
Week 2
On 9/14/2025, my tracker showed the Chargers with $13,987,614 in available cap space. That was with 53 on the active roster, and with dead cap money having increased a bit.
Week 3
For those first two updates, I was mostly using data from OverTheCap, supplemented by some data from Spotrac, which provides more detail from OTC. As I was updating my tracker today, I noticed that OTC was out of date, showing S Jefferson still on the practice squad rather than on the active roster and not showing recent practice squad signings for IDL Weaver and Edge Ferrell. So I adjusted the tracker so I can perform full tracking for OTC and Spotrac separately.
On 9/21, my tracker using Spotrac data shows the Chargers with $11,723,144 in available cap space. This is more conservative than the OTC data, since the Spotrac data shows ~$1.8M more in cap expenses. More than $1M is acounted for by Jefferson, Weaver, and Ferrell, so the relative difference once OTC catches up on those transactions will be fairly minor.
Here is a breakdown of cap expenses (again, Spotrac data):
- Active contracts – $196,557,893
- Practice squad – $4,300,000
- Reserve/PUP – $495,000
- Reserve/Injured – $40,544,300
- Dead cap money – $30,338,557
- Total cap expenses – $272,235,750
Over the past week, the Chargers moved Edge Mack and LB Perryman to IR designated to return, joining LS Harris and CB Leonard there. Right now, 14.9% of the Chargers 2025 cap expenses is accounted for by players on IR. Unfortunately, this is not unfamiliar to us as Chargers fans…
However, when any of these players return to the active roster, it will push an equivalent number of players off the active roster, which will generate some cap credit, since right now, the full salaries of these players and their replacements are counting agsinst the cap. Of course, those credits will come from low salary players, so the credit will be limited.
Outlook
With 14 more regular season games to support practice squad activations and, unfortunately, probably more players who will go on IR and require injury replacements, I think the Chargers should probably reserve ~$3M for those expenses. So IMO effective cap space is $8M to $9M.
If the Chargers were to decide to make a midseason trade that requires more than that amount (e.g., CIN Edge Hendrickson), they would need to make a corresponding move to clear cap space, such as restructuring a veteran contract (e.g., Herbert, James).
