Eric Kendricks to sign with Chargers

Eric Kendricks to sign with Chargers

Former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks announced on Instagram Monday that he was going to sign with the Los Angeles Chargers, captioning his post “Back in LA .. Bolt Up!” with two lightning bolt emojis. Kendricks played four years at UCLA.

Former #Vikings LB Eric Kendricks is signing with the #Chargers pic.twitter.com/glkAFvT5b1

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 14, 2023

The official terms of Kendricks’ new contract have not been released.

Per Over The Cap, the Chargers have approximately $18.0 million in cap-space and could possibly free up an extra $6 million if they trade Austin Ekeler, who requested permission to seek a trade Monday morning.

Austin Ekeler requests permission to seek trade from Chargers

Kendricks was an elite-level linebacker with Minnesota, where he spent the first eight years of his career, despite being named an All-Pro just once in 2019.

In eight seasons in purple, he tallied 919 tackles — including 579 solo — with 54 tackles-for-loss and four forced fumbles. Though Kendricks was especially good in coverage, deflecting 51 passes — including 12 in 2019 — while hauling in nine interceptions.

He was recently cut by the Vikings last week in a series of house-cleaning transactions that second-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah made on the defensive side of the football, where Minnesota has vastly underperformed each of the last two seasons.

Vikings Releasing Eric Kendricks

With that former second-round pick even showed signs of decline with his quickness last season, despite totaling 137 tackles with one sack, eight tackles-for-loss and six pass deflections.

Make no mistake, Kendricks still has plenty of juice left in the tank and will almost certainly help bolster a Chargers back-seven that logged the 10th-best pass-defense DVOA last season. We’ll wait and see what the final cap numbers are, but the expectation is that it’s a pretty a cost-effective contract for an organization looking to pay their new quarterback once the new league year begins on March 15.

This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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