Weighing the options will decide LT's fate
January 17
San Diego Union-Tribune
"The Chargers - meaning President Dean Spanos, General Manager A.J. Smith, Vice President Ed McGuire and head coach Norv Turner - will consider four options with regard to LaDainian Tomlinson's future with the team.
Within the next month, they will either keep him at his current salary level, approach him about a contract renegotiation, try to trade him or release him.
All four options - releasing him or attempting to work out a new contract, or both, appear to be the most likely scenarios - will be weighed with several factors in mind. And all those factors can really be boiled down to one objective.
"How do we do all the things we need to do," Smith said Friday. "That's what we have to figure out."
The Chargers have several young players whose contracts expire over the next two years. Philip Rivers, Vincent Jackson, Marcus McNeill and Shawne Merriman are due to become unrestricted free agents after the 2009 season.
With Tomlinson due to make $6.725 million and also count an additional $2.066 million toward the salary cap based on the prorated portion of his signing bonus, any renegotiation would actually be asking Tomlinson to take a pay cut. Renegotiations for the sake of helping a team make room under the cap generally involve a highly paid star taking a lower salary but making up for it in bonus money.
Asking him to rework his contract would leave the decision on whether to stay up to Tomlinson, and there may be teams willing and in a better position to pay him more than the Chargers.
The Chargers likely would not want to guarantee Tomlinson too much, because of the point he is at in his career. Plus, in regards to the salary cap, they are already on the hook for the $2.066 million of signing bonus money from the contract he signed in 2004.
The willingness even to think about parting ways with Tomlinson is not just because of money.
There also is the fact he is going to be 30 in June and has finished the past two seasons with serious injuries. Additionally, his unhappiness with the offense has not gone unnoticed in the organization.
Should the team offer Tomlinson a reworked contract - and taking the $8.791 million cap hit does not seem doable - he could reject the deal. That would essentially force the Chargers to release or trade him.
The trade market, according to several sources, would likely bring the Chargers a mid-round draft pick. And out of respect for Tomlinson, who has spent eight years selling jerseys and breaking records as a Charger, the team probably would release him rather than put him through the indignity of being on the trade market.
If the Chargers do retain Tomlinson at his current salary, they will face the same dilemma next year. Tomlinson is due to make $8 million in 2010. His 2011 salary would be $9.275 million."
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