Dolphins shed salary, gain draft picks, sending Waddle to Denver. Did the Chargers miss a monumental opportunity?
As you may have noticed, I have been hyper-fixated on what the Los Angeles Chargers might do with the huge amount of salary cap space that they currently have.
"How much cap space do they have?"
They have so much salary cap space that they need to spend many millions of dollars just to reach the salary cap floor.
This is one of the main reasons that I am surprised the team allowed Odafe Oweh to walk in free agency (instead of putting the franchise tag on him) and why I have been pushing for the Chargers to use their cap space to work a trade with the Dallas Cowboys (who are currently over the cap) for WR George Pickens.
As far as we know, the Chargers right now are focusing on signing yet another backup guard for an offensive line that doesn't need it. I asked a friend why it felt like the Chargers were unwilling to spend the money that they have to spend, and his response was "They have reportedly been sniffing around on some big-time WRs."
Presumably one of those WRs would've been Jaylen Waddle, who was a borderline Pro Bowl-level WR for Mike McDaniel's Miami Dolphins, but that ship has now sailed:
First, why would the Dolphins make this move? Well, they appear to be trying to rip the roster down to the studs and rebuild from scratch. Getting a 1st & 3rd round pick for Waddle is one way to do that.
More importantly, Waddle's salary cap hit jumps from $4.9M in 2026 up to $27M in 2027 and $30.4M in 2028 (he can also choose to opt out after 2027). He was never going to be more valuable than he is right now, which lines up well with new Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley's timeline to rebuild the roster in a new image.
Second, should the Chargers have made this trade instead of the Broncos? Maybe. I think the Chargers are still trying to find a trade partner that would want to take back Quentin Johnston as part of the deal and Miami wasn't that. We'll see if that comes back to bite them or not.
Also, Jaylen Waddle is probably not your prototypical X-receiver, which is what the Chargers are looking for. He's not big (5'10") or powerful (185 lbs) and, despite having elite 40-yard dash times at his Pro Day and at the NFL Scouting Combine before the 2021 NFL Draft, Jaylen has become better known for his precise route-running and reliable hands than for getting open downfield with his speed.
Some of that could've been him catching passes from a QB with questionable arm strength. Either way, it's difficult to tell because so much of Waddle's career has come with him playing the Z-receiver role (and, occasionally, the slot) next to Tyreek Hill, who is an ideal X-receiver. He'll probably do much of the same playing next to Courtland Sutton in Denver.
Had the Chargers made this trade, I'd be over the moon. That being said, I'm not entirely sure that this improves the Denver Broncos offense all that much. Maybe I'll turn out to be wrong about that.
One thing this does though is turn the heat up on the Chargers to add an X-receiver to their roster that is at least as good as Jaylen Waddle. That's a tough task but a necessary one if Los Angeles wants to set Justin Herbert and the rest of the offense up for success, and they certainly have enough cap space to pull it off. There are no more excuses.