Over The Cap.<\/a> With only 36 players under contract, the team will need to use some of that to fill out the roster, but the Chargers should still have a lot of wiggle room to spend if they want. Another $10 million could be opened up if the team moves on from Mekhi Becton. Becton played 15 games, but had the second-highest blown block rate among right guards. Smaller cuts like Bradley Bozeman and Bud Dupree ($3 million each) are also likely.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Key pending free agents<\/p>\n
Edge Khalil Mack
Edge Odafe Oweh
G Zion Johnson
WR Keenan Allen
DT Teair Tart<\/p>\n
Mack was 18th among players with at least 200 pass-rush snaps in pressure rate. He dislocated his elbow in Week 2 and came back even better just five weeks later. Oweh\u2019s acquisition was a win-win trade that sent Alohi Gilman to the Ravens. From his first game with the Chargers through the end of the regular season, he was 17th in pressure rate.<\/p>\n
Johnson has an interesting free-agent case. His fifth-year option was declined after three disappointing seasons. His 2025 wasn\u2019t dominant, but it was much improved and he remained the healthiest lineman throughout the season.<\/p>\n
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Positional needs<\/p>\n
Interior offensive line
Defensive tackle
Edge<\/p>\n
Mekhi Becton and Bradley Bozeman are likely gone, which already opens up two spots along the offensive line. Then there\u2019s the Zion Johnson decision. The Chargers have one of the league\u2019s best tackle duos when healthy (when appears to be a big if), but haven\u2019t had the interior to match.<\/p>\n
The Chargers could use some bigger bodies along the interior of the defensive line, especially if Teair Tart is not re-signed. This defense was second in run stuff rate on running back carries and was 11th in yards allowed before contract per carry, but the depth that allowed that to happen might need to be replenished.<\/p>\n
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Edge is a similar spot with both Khalil Mack and Odafe Oweh set to be free agents. Tuli Tuipulotu broke out, so there is one spot along the edge accounted for. He ranked ninth in pressure rate. However, as a team, the Chargers ranked only 16th in pressure rate for the season.<\/p>\n
2026 NFL Draft picks<\/p>\n
1st round, No. 22 pick
2nd round
3rd round
4th round
6th round<\/p>\n
Good draft fit<\/p>\n
Kayden McDonald, DT, Ohio State<\/p>\n
The Chargers need size on the interior to help against the run, and McDonald can eat double teams and allow his teammates to make plays. That would also force offenses into more third-and-longs, where the Chargers can really get funky.<\/p>\n
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Betting nugget<\/p>\n
A stingy defense and methodical offense led the Chargers to being one of the best under wagers this season, as Chargers games went 10-6-1 to the under in the regular season. \u2014 Ben Fawkes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL offseason has begun, and Yahoo Sports is previewing the coming months for all 32 teams, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[66915,66914,66918,51304,11594,30438,1535,11490,1544,16925,30434,48,52,51,47,1333,50,49,66916,51377,40684,43965,11595,66917,11596,66920,18615,51949,66919],"class_list":["post-130082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-afc-east","tag-afc-west","tag-alohi-gilman","tag-bradley-bozeman","tag-broncos","tag-bud-dupree","tag-chargers","tag-joe-alt","tag-justin-herbert","tag-keenan-allen","tag-khalil-mack","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mekhi-becton","tag-odafe-oweh","tag-packers","tag-panthers","tag-raiders","tag-rashawn-slater","tag-steelers","tag-teair-tart","tag-the-chargers","tag-tuli-tuipulotu","tag-zion-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}