3:49pm: Ingram’s fifth-year option for 2016 will be worth $7.751MM, tweets Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun.
3:45pm: The Chargers have exercised their fifth-year option for linebacker Melvin Ingram, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The option will keep Ingram under contract with the team through the 2016 season.
As part of the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams hold fifth-year options for first-round draftees, allowing the club to lock up their former first-rounders for an extra year. The exact amount of the option for Ingram, 2012’s 18th overall pick, isn’t yet known, but for 2015, the figure for linebackers is $7.038MM. As such, Ingram’s salary for 2016 figures to be a little higher than that.
Ingram, who turns 26 later this month, has had a hard time staying on the field for the Charger during his first three seasons with the team, playing just 29 regular season games. In 2014, a hip injury sidelined him for seven games, as he spent nearly half the season on injured reserve with the designation to return. In the nine games he did play, Ingram was effective as a pass rusher, recording 26 overall quarterback pressures, including four sacks. He also forced a pair of fumbles.