Freeing up $4.6 million in cash for 2016, the Chargers release inside linebacker Donald Butler.
The move was expected dating to last season, when rookie Denzel Perryman supplanted Butler.
A 2010 draftee of A.J. Smith, Butler missed his rookie season with a torn Achilles' tendon but become an integral member of defenses under head coaches Norv Turner and Mike McCoy.
He made a key strip-sack in the playoff win at Cincinnati after the 2013 season and had an interception in the playoff game that followed at Denver. Two months later, second-year General Manager Tom Telesco kept him off the free-agent market with a seven-year, $51.8 million contract.
The bulk of the money in that complicated deal now disappears, following two disappointing seasons from Butler.
The move was expected dating to last season, when rookie Denzel Perryman supplanted Butler.
A 2010 draftee of A.J. Smith, Butler missed his rookie season with a torn Achilles' tendon but become an integral member of defenses under head coaches Norv Turner and Mike McCoy.
He made a key strip-sack in the playoff win at Cincinnati after the 2013 season and had an interception in the playoff game that followed at Denver. Two months later, second-year General Manager Tom Telesco kept him off the free-agent market with a seven-year, $51.8 million contract.
The bulk of the money in that complicated deal now disappears, following two disappointing seasons from Butler.