Experts weigh in on the Chargers' #22 pick, revealing a surprising consensus after early defensive projections shifted towards a crucial offensive line upgrade.
Mock drafts are worth more than you might think. Not all of the people putting them together are experts in college football or even scouting, and not all of them are tapped into front offices and hearing rumors about what teams are looking for, but enough of them have bits of each or both of those that I think it's pretty common that one (or more) of the mock drafts ends up being correct in guessing a team's pick.
That's why I regularly check in on mock drafts between the end of the season and the NFL Draft itself. I'm going to try and remember to regularly turn those into posts here when I do so, with my own thoughts added in when I have them.
Let's take a look at who the experts see the Los Angeles Chargers drafting with the #22 overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft:
Mel Kiper (January 21): Peter Woods, DT, Clemson
Matt Miller (February 2): Caleb Banks, DT, Florida
Daniel Jeremiah (January 26): Lee Hunter, DT, Texas Tech
One of the reasons I wanted to include the date of the mock draft was because of stuff like this. Kiper and Jeremiah both picked nose tackles and stated that part of the reason was because the Chargers were at risk of losing Teair Tart in free agency. Then, on January 26th (after Jeremiah and Kiper published their mock drafts), the Chargers agreed to a 3-year contract extension with Tart.
That does make the Matt Miller pick even more puzzling, though, since he put together his mock draft a week later.
Bucky Brooks (January 28): Akheem Mesidor, EDGE, Miami
Eric Edholm (January 30): Cashius Howell, EDGE, Texas A&M
Okay, what the hell? I know neither of these guys is the type to just pull a name out of thin air, but I am perplexed as to how the first five mock drafts I have looked up have spit out that the Chargers (with a top 5 defense and a QB that was almost killed by his offensive line) want to use their biggest chip in adding talent to the roster to grab a defender.
Maybe this is because they think Odafe Oweh will leave in free agency, but that still doesn't feel like it should be anywhere near the top of the team's offseason priority list.
Lance Zierlein (February 2): Olaivavega Ioane, OG, Penn State
Walter Football (February 2): Olaivavega Ioane, OG, Penn State
Mike Renner (February 2): Olaivavega Ioane, OG, Penn State
Ryan Wilson (February 2): Olaivavega Ioane, OG, Penn State
USA Today AI bot (February 2): Olaivavega Ioane, OG, Penn State
Finally, consensus! After the first five mocks I checked told me the Chargers will use the #22 pick on a defender, the next five (including one put together by a freaking AI bot, for some reason) all spit out the same name.
Barring something dramatic happening at the NFL Combine, or in NFL free agency, that's usually a pretty good sign of what we can expect from the Chargers.