{"id":156096,"date":"2023-12-23T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=156096"},"modified":"2023-12-22T23:23:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T04:23:13","slug":"chargers-roster-rebuild-underway-after-release-of-former-team-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/12\/23\/chargers-roster-rebuild-underway-after-release-of-former-team-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers Roster Rebuild Underway After Release of Former Team Captain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers have released starter and former team captain defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day. This is the first significant roster move of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/12\/16\/outlook-chargers-after-dismissal-brandon-staley-tom-telesco\/\" target=\"_self\">post-Tom Telesco era<\/a> (unless you count adding Will Grier as an extra backup quarterback). It seemed quite likely that the 2024 Chargers roster would look rather different, but it seems that the front office has decided not to waste time getting started.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Chargers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Chargers<\/a> announce they have waived DL and team captain Sebastian Joseph-Day.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Daniel Popper (@danielrpopper) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danielrpopper\/status\/1738251825038659796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 22, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Chargers Roster Rebuild Underway After Release of Sebastian Joseph-Day<\/h2>\n<h3>First Domino to Fall<\/h3>\n<p>Joseph-Day was signed in 2022 to help a struggling run defense. In that capacity, he did fairly well. However, he seemed to be taking a step back this year; although he\u2019d improved his quarterback pressuring noticeably (three sacks and a career-high 11 quarterback hits), he only had three tackles for a loss and was simply not making as much of an impact. Still, releasing a player who had been a team captain all year is a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>It is little secret that Joseph-Day was brought in because he\u2019d played with coach Brandon Staley before, and thus would easily fit into his defense. It is likely that his being connected so much with Staley is part of the reason why he ended up getting released \u2013 the team may looking to shave off a lot of the products of the Staley era.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/39161026\/los-angeles-chargers-coach-brandon-staley-fired-2023-players-speak\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> The revelation that Staley was playing favorites with \u201chis guys\u201d<\/a> \u2013 whom Joseph-Day would have been one of \u2013 would seem to lend credence to that theory.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, it seems unlikely they would have cut him before the off-season without a reason. As of now, no particular reason has been given, but one can reasonably assume that he asked for his release. That may have been because he was unhappy about Staley being fired. At any rate, this move will save $7.5 million in cap in 2024.<\/p>\n<h3>Who Could Be Next?<\/h3>\n<p>If this move is any indication, plenty of players on the Chargers roster are going to be on the chopping block \u2013 and many of them will likely be \u201cStaley\u2019s guys.\u201d There is also the fact that they are in cap hell next year \u2013 currently set to be $42 million over. Four players \u2013 Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Khalil Mack, and Joey Bosa \u2013 will be making over $30 million, and in all likelihood, at least two of them will be gone next year (even though none of them really fall into the category of \u201cStaley\u2019s guys\u201d, having all predated Staley, save for Mack). The Chargers would more likely try to trade any of those rather than cut.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone else is likely to get cut before the off-season, it\u2019s Morgan Fox \u2013 another player that Staley brought in who he had worked with before. Cutting him would also save $3.5 million. Unless someone else really wants out that badly, it\u2019s hard to see any other cuts happening before the off-season. Eric Kendricks is another possible off-season cut \u2013 that would save $6.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Also, these are not cuts, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nfl\/free-agents\/los-angeles-chargers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">several incoming free agents<\/a> are now all but guaranteed to not be re-signed. Kenneth Murray and Austin Johnson are at the top of that list. Austin Ekeler is likely to walk as well \u2013 he appears to have slowed down, and he was already looking for a bigger contract earlier this year.<\/p>\n<h3>Cleaning House<\/h3>\n<p>It seems that the Chargers are poised to separate themselves from the Staley era as much as possible. Given that it ended far more disastrously than the last couple of hires, this makes a degree of sense \u2013 and considering the cap issues they will be facing, it makes sense to free up as much as they can so they can start a soft rebuild in earnest (\u201csoft\u201d because they still have their franchise quarterback and a small handful of other strong-to-elite pieces that are not going anywhere).<\/p>\n<p>Sebastian Joseph-Day is the first roster move in that direction. There will be plenty more, though they may or may not be in-season. And not all of them may be related to cleansing the locker room of Staley\u2019s shadow, since there is also the matter of cap space to clear up. There is also a lot that depends on who the new general manager and head coach hires are. But this Chargers roster will look very different in 2024, and we are beginning to see that unfold.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chargers released former team captain Sebastian Joseph-Day, making him the first domino to fall as the team rebuilds their roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":156101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18],"tags":[7642,8980],"class_list":["post-156096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-sebastian-joseph-day"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}