Chargers Should Turn the Page on Quentin Johnston as Lost Season Shifts Focus to the Future

The Los Angeles Chargers came into 2026 believing Quentin Johnston had finally turned the corner.

Now, six weeks into a season that has unraveled at every turn, the organization now appears ready to accept that the partnership has run its course and is open to finding him a new home before the trade deadline arrives in early November.

It is a notable shift for a front office that spent much of the spring defending the former first-round pick, with general manager Joe Hortiz publicly brushing aside trade chatter in April before the team exercised Johnston’s fifth-year option.

This move locked in a fully guaranteed salary north of $18 million for 2027 and seemed to signal that Los Angeles viewed him as part of its long-term plans.

That confidence was built largely on a 2025 campaign in which Johnston posted career highs with 735 receiving yards and eight touchdowns, finishing as the team’s leader in scores for the second straight year and offering a glimpse of the big-bodied vertical threat the Chargers envisioned when they selected him 21st overall out of TCU in 2023.

The problem is that the flashes never hardened into consistency, and this fall the regression has been impossible to ignore: Johnston has managed just eight catches for 165 yards without a touchdown, has battled the same drop issues that have followed him since his rookie year, and has missed time with a chest injury.

At the same time, the offense has sputtered under new coordinator Mike McDaniel.

None of that falls entirely on Johnston, considering the entire unit has struggled to find any rhythm during a 0-6 start.

Still, the reality is that a receiver entering his fourth season should be stabilizing a passing game rather than disappearing within it. His production has fallen well short of what a former first-round investment demands.

That is precisely why a trade makes sense for everyone involved, because Johnston never truly found his footing in Los Angeles, starting with a rocky rookie season under a previous coaching staff and continuing through a pair of scheme changes that never fully unlocked his talent.

A change of scenery could be exactly what he needs to rediscover the confidence that made him such a coveted prospect.

For the Chargers, the logic is just as compelling, since a winless start has effectively shifted the focus toward next season, and moving Johnston would clear that hefty guaranteed salary off the 2027 books while giving younger receivers like KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Tre’ Harris the extended runway they need to prove they belong in the long-term picture.

Los Angeles is also staring at the very real possibility of owning a top selection in next spring’s draft, and pairing that premium pick with newfound cap flexibility would give Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh the tools to reshape the offense around Justin Herbert rather than continuing to wait on a breakout that may simply never arrive in powder blue.

Whether a contender is willing to absorb his contract remains an open question, but parting ways now would allow both Johnston and the Chargers to stop looking backward and start building toward what comes next.