The San Diego Chargers have reportedly scheduled a series of meetings with LaDainian Tomlinson’s agent in the hopes of restructuring the running back’s contract.
The Chargers are looking to lower Tomlinson’s salary cap impact (currently around $8.8 million) and include several performance based incentives in the deal.
Unfortunately for San Diego, 2010 is currently set to be an “uncapped” year which means that all incentives for the 2009 season automatically count against the team’s salary cap number for this year.
While Tomlinson has stated that he’d like to stay with the Chargers, the team has already tagged running back Darren Sproles as their franchise player and could be on the hook for as much as $6.62 million if a long term deal isn’t worked out.
The team has stated that Tomlinson’s status won’t affect Sproles because they don’t view him as an every down back. If that’s the case, should they fail to reach an agreement with LT, the Chargers will likely be forced to draft a running back much earlier than planned.