ORLANDO, Fla. -- Though the Los Angeles Chargers floundered in 2023, Keenan Allen flourished.
Despite playing in his age-31 season and missing four games, Allen had one of his finest years, earning a spot in Thursday's Pro Bowl Games -- the sixth all-star honor of his career.
However, his future with the Bolts is a topic of uncertainty as he holds a $34.71 million 2024 cap hit against the Chargers. Nonetheless, Allen is quite emphatic that he's not leaving L.A.
"Yeah. Absolutely," Allen told NFL Network's Cam Wolfe at Thursday's Pro Bowl Games when asked if he anticipated being with the Bolts next season. "I don't see myself going anywhere."
Unfortunately, that might not be up to Allen.
Allen, Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa and Mike Williams each have plus-$30 million cap hits in 2024. Per Over the Cap, the Chargers' negative-$44,023 million is the fourth worst in the NFL at this point ahead of next season.
There could be some hard decisions ahead. There could be some restructures. There could be some contract massaging.
New Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh was officially introduced by the team on Thursday. The two have talked and Harbaugh knows what Allen can bring.
"He's been watching for a long time, and we actually played against each other: Stanford-Cal," Allen said. "He just wants me to continue to be a leader. Continue to be who I am. And he's going to do his job."
While Harbaugh's hiring has been met with all the pomp and circumstance one would expect, his addition is unlikely to be the only major change to the club. With a quartet of veterans on the books for massive cap hits, it's unlikely everyone's coming back.
Allen's confident he will be, though, and confident the Chargers can rebound from a 5-12 2023 campaign.
"We're going to continue to compete," he said, "do what we do and put some better results out there."
