Chargers face draft with gaping holes, forcing tough roster decisions. Can they salvage Super Bowl hopes with immediate rookie impact?
The Los Angeles Chargers have nobody to blame but themselves.
The team finds itself less than two weeks away from the NFL Draft and more problems than solutions on their roster despite an overwhelming amount of (still unused) salary cap space.
Chargers GM Joe Hortiz is now sitting in the unfortunate position of needing to draft for positions of need, instead of taking the best player available, and needing rookies to make an immediate impact to keep from derailing the team's Super Bowl aspirations. Also, unfortunately to Hortiz, that cap space doesn't roll over to the next year.
The Chargers starting guards for most of the 2025 NFL Season were Mekhi Becton, whom the team released in the offseason (and has yet to sign with another NFL team), and Zion Johnson. Becton was mostly terrible but Johnson was dependable, if not downright solid, and he rode that reputation to a big free agent contract to be a starting guard for the Cleveland Browns.
To replace them, hopefully with better or more plentiful talent that could avoid the catastrophe that was last year's Chargers offensive line, the Chargers have.....signed Cole Strange, who lost his starting job with the Patriots and got a bunch of starts for the Miami Dolphins last year after signing with them to be a backup. That's it. That's all they've done.
That means the team has to find a way, over the next couple of months, to add someone potentially capable of being a starting guard at the NFL level. The options for finding such a player remain limited outside of the draft.
Hortiz also declined to put any sort of tag on Odafe Oweh, who picked up 10.5 sacks in 13 games with the Chargers (including 3 sacks in the playoff loss to the Patriots) after being acquired from the Baltimore Ravens in a trade, leading to him signing a 4-year deal with the Washington Commanders for $100M. That's fine! Good for him!
But the Chargers front office has worked to replace this critical impact player by....signing a new nose tackle, Dalvin Tomlinson. The issues that plagued L.A.'s pass rush before they traded for Oweh last season, that it is too reliant on Khalil Mack and too slow otherwise, are back in full force.
Expect the Chargers to find a way, over the next couple of months, to add someone potentially capable of being a replacement for Oweh in the team's pass rush. The options for finding such a player remain limited outside of the draft.
I could go on, talking about the team's desperate attempt to trade Quentin Johnston before May 1st and how that would once again leave them without a true #1 WR in the offense, but I am curious to see what happens with the remaining WR free agents (specifically Tyreek Hill and Deebo Samuel, who both have strong ties to Mike McDaniel) and I think there are some legitimate big-time options on the trade market (A.J. Brown, George Pickens, etc.).
It seems plausible that the Chargers will add someone, over the next couple of months, that becomes Justin Herbert's most dangerous weapon in passing situations. There are some trade options, but it's also possible that the Chargers will use an early draft pick on a WR.
The thing that these three situations have in common? They're own-goals. They're uncomfortable roster crunches caused by either moves the Chargers have made (releasing Becton) or haven't made (re-signing Oweh, signing a big money FA).
If this Chargers season ends anything like the last few, there will be nobody for Joe Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh to point the blame at other than themselves.