Official 2026 Chargers Roster Discussion | Roster Build | Free Agency

[wu-dai clan]

Opponents will now pay a price fir teeing off on Herbert. McD's offensive play designs will be part of improve OL performance. We are slowly building depth.

I posted what BAL did in 2014, referenced by Hortiz. Gary Kubiak came in with zone. There were subtle changes only at OL personnel.

[wu-dai clan]

LMAO:

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Absurdity can be useful. I actually like Schrauth for us. Do we overdraft him in round 3 ? Or Bisontis, Pregnon in round 1 ?

Joe's counting on some big board luck and 31 teams laying off certain zone scheme fit prospects. Then we can get some additional IOL bargain depth from those looking for jobs post draft.

Eventually, Charger fans and pundits must stop with the exaggerated outrage. Joe is picking his spots with eyes wide open.

We are becoming a team with fewer and fewer overall weaknesses. The Chargers will be consistently strong.

[DerwinBosa]

Sounds familiar, with Hortiz learning from one of the best general managers of this century.

The Ravens took a social-media beating from some of their fans last week for, again, sitting out the early days of free agency and letting some significant players—wideout Torrey Smith (San Francisco) and pass-rusher Pernell McPhee (Chicago)—walk away. When Haloti Ngata balked at doing a new contract with a year left on his rich deal, Baltimore dealt him to Detroit for two mid-round picks. Baltimore GM Ozzie ******* and his staff have gotten used to criticism for letting big names go at this time of year. They don’t seem to mind.

******* declined to speak about Baltimore’s free-agent strategy on Monday, or to make anyone else available to discuss it. I think there’s a good chance he stayed mum because it’s a competitive issue to them. The Ravens just do free agency smarter than almost everyone else. They do it by mostly sitting out the early days and allowing bottom-feeding teams to spend the silly money. Occasionally they’ll “splurge” (well, their version of “splurging”) by signing a player like Justin Forsett for reasonable money. Forsett, who walked off the street to gain 1,266 rushing yards for Baltimore last fall, earned a three-year, $9-million deal from the Ravens last week.

[Steve]

Slater, Alt, Biadasz, Strange, Penning, Pipkins, Cleveland, Branson, Kaltenberger...who am I missing? is it just these nine so far or is Sarrell still on the roster, I think Deculus returns as an RFA too, so we have at least 10 linemen in the roster and we should be signing at least one maybe two more veteran guards...

NFL teams carry about 15 OL of their 90 just to run practices. Probably want an extra guy or maybe two to give Alt and Slater a chance to have some extra rest coming off of injury.

Branson Taylor really only played in the week 18 game. He looked OK, which is saying something because he played opposite Zach Allen most of the day. They did move Allen around, and on his 1st pass blocking rep, Taylor got lit up. But most of the rest of the game he held his own.

Now, in terms of his technique and especially moving his feet, he needs to improve. Like a lot of young OL, he tends to make contact and lock up on the DL, then kind of stops and from there starts to fall off the block. It is a common problem young OL have, so it is not like it cannot be fixed. The question will be does he fix it. That is what coaching is for.

It will also help if he can get leaner and stronger and improve his technique. OL play is all about technique (most other positions too). A young player is going to struggle with consistency and overall being able to perform unless they can use the basic fundamentals to do things correctly over and over. But that is a very similar thing that Justin Oboigbe had to do, and he did in his offseason between year 1 and year 2.

None of this is anything unusual. In fact it is kind of the deal. Draft a guy, and develop. If we cannot find a GM and coaching staff who can do that consistently, we aren't going to build a championship franchise.

[Eurobolt]

I wanted to add one more thing - to those of users that believe that McD scheme will make Herbert's protection better straight away it is the same scheme that made Tua the most injured (concussed), almost retired QB over past few years good luck in believing in that. We need real talent on IOL period.

[Fouts2herbert]

I wouldn't count Cleveland, Branson, Deculus or Kaltenberger in any list of guys I want to see suiting up for my team. Not crazy about Penning. So I'd say we've got 5.75 true o-linemen on the roster.

Work still to do.

That said, I'll remind the forum again: The 49ers under brilliant Kyle Shanahan often deploys stray dog guards who are paid (relatively speaking of course) dog food. Has the 49er offense been good?

McDaniel runs a Shanahan style offense.

The keys for success in a Shanahan offense?

• Great mobile tackles
• Great Fullback
• Elite Blocking Tight End

I propose we have the best combination of mobile tackles, fullback and blocking tight end in the universe at the current moment. Take a moment, and let that wash over.

The Chargers invented the West coast offense in the 1960s and this is the first time since the Coryell era that they will attempt to go back to some version of it, I don't know why everyone is so mad...the decisions on linemen are being made by Mike McDaniel the same guy that everyone here was overjoyed to get and now folks don't like his decisions and we haven't even gotten to the draft yet...I will say this, Zion is gone, Bozeman is gone, and Becton is gone...they are making sweeping changes, they swept the entire IOL...still more free agency to go and the draft is out there in the horizon...we kind of have to give Mike the benefit of the doubt that he might have some idea of what he wants to do...there seems to be a plan here...

[Fouts2herbert]

Deculus is a restricted free agent

Please tell me they are not bringing the turnstile back. i am just climbing out of doom mode.

Just because he returns doesn't mean he'll make the roster...with the way things are going in the NFL the Chargers might even find a trade partner for him in TC before cuts, who knows, but as a camp body? all I care about at the OT positions is that we have folks to take reps in the summer to give our two studs a chance to heal...

[Ghost of Quacksaw]

Thank God that Trey Pipkins and Deane Leonard have been re-signed!

Joe Hortiz is making certain that the bottom 10% of the roster is getting filled out first!

There. That was my Riverwalk imitation.

[Fouts2herbert]

Seattle's OT Josh Jones is a FA and he is much better than Pip. I know they can always cut these guys if we get better ones down the road but ffs.

you want us to decline a 3rd round pick for some asshole that's been on 4 different teams in 6 years? good god...apparently 4 sets of coaching staffs didn't agree with your assessment of how good this cat is despite him being a relatively high 3rd round pick, you have no idea as in no fucking clue what is going on with this guy, whether he has worn out his welcome in lorckerrooms due to being a bad teammate or whether he has some kind of chronic issue which could be anything, maybe there is a reason why he hasn't stayed anywhere that you know nothing about...I could understand questioning 1 set of coaches, but 4 sets of coaches in 6 seasons and he was drafted high in the 3rd? yeah something is definitely not right there considering how much demand there is for O-line in the NFL...

[Fouts2herbert]

I know people aren't happy with the Pip signing or some of the oline guys they brought back like Pip. I got to wonder if the offensive coaching was really that bad. I mean McD has to be approving these signings yeah? I just can believe Hortiz is making these decisions in a vacuum without input from his OC.

Pip is technically the only O-line that they've brought back, Branson, Cleveland, and Kaltenberger were all signed to future's contracts well before McDaniel was signed as OC...POST McDaniel they've let go of Becton, perhaps let Zion walk, and maybe played a hand in Bozeman retiring...they signed Biadasz and Strange from other teams, the only guy that's been brought back is Pipkins...Deculus is an RFA and will probably end up just being a camp body along with Branson, Cleveland, and Kaltenberger...it remains to be seen if Branson and Kaltenberger have a future with the team as like practice squad guys...we will draft a couple of linemen and then probably sign 4-5 guys in undrafted rookie free agency and then after that they'll sign a couple more veterans too, plus there's still a chance that they target someone Mike likes in trade...

[gzubeck]

Pip is technically the only O-line that they've brought back, Branson, Cleveland, and Kaltenberger were all signed to future's contracts well before McDaniel was signed as OC...POST McDaniel they've let go of Becton, perhaps let Zion walk, and maybe played a hand in Bozeman retiring...they signed Biadasz and Strange from other teams, the only guy that's been brought back is Pipkins...Deculus is an RFA and will probably end up just being a camp body along with Branson, Cleveland, and Kaltenberger...it remains to be seen if Branson and Kaltenberger have a future with the team as like practice squad guys...we will draft a couple of linemen and then probably sign 4-5 guys in undrafted rookie free agency and then after that they'll sign a couple more veterans too, plus there's still a chance that they target someone Mike likes in trade...

Fresh set of eyes to look at some of these guys in training camp. I trust nothing of what Gro brought in training and evaluation last couple of years. Let McD figure it out as I trust his view point 2x more than GRO and Company!

[Boltx]

All joking and tongue in cheek roasting of Hortiz aside, if we can secure one of Ioane, Pregnon, Fano, etc, we should be ok.

The rookie will upgrade one OG spot. Center is upgraded. OTs are returning and hopefully are healthy. Between Strange, Penning and whoever else they add, the other OG spot should be at least no worse than last year. Elite blocking TE and FB acquired.

This is a fair take IMO and it shows massive upgrades along the OL. I’m just curious what they are going to use all this cap space on?