Official 2026 Chargers Roster Discussion | Roster Build | Free Agency

[beachcomber]

Wyatt Teller, a veteran offensive guard released by the Browns in March 2026, has an injury history largely defined by calf and knee issues. He finished the 2025 season on injured reserve with a severe calf injury that caused him to miss time in the final weeks, following a 2024 season interrupted by a knee injury.

Key Injury History Details:

• 2022 (Calf/Knee): Suffered a calf strain in Week 6 that caused him to miss two full games and a knee injury during the preseason, per PlayerProfiler.
• 2020 (Calf/Ankle): Missed time with a calf strain in Week 5 and an ankle injury in Week 15.

• 2025 (Calf/IR): Injured his calf in Week 13, returned briefly in Week 17, re-aggravated it, and was placed on Injured Reserve, ending his season, notes this article from Yahoo Sports and this article from The Akron Beacon Journal.
• 2024 (Knee): Suffered a knee injury in Week 3, which resulted in him being placed on Injured Reserve before being activated on Oct. 26
  .

Despite these injuries, Teller has generally been durable throughout his seven-year career in Cleveland (2019-2025), playing a high percentage of snaps when active.

personally think it's a problem and the likelihood that he makes it thru a whole season unscathed unlikely, let alone w/us for the entirety of a SB run.... buyer beware.

[Maniaque 6]

An OL with Slater-FA-Biadasz-draft-Alt is still possible
Don't need 5 Probowlers there
I think Herby is already happy

[beachcomber]

recall posting @least a time or coupla few that would be surprised if Hortiz spent any much more than $10m on any one FA (he did w/Khalil), and.... don't envy him as many or @least more than a few have brought up the success that not one, albeit both SB teams had in FA during the last go 'round.... stay firm Mr. Hortiz.

[beachcomber]

An OL with Slater-FA-Biadasz-draft-Alt is still possible
Don't need 5 Probowlers there
I think Herby is already happy

hey man.... we've got four first rounders tho

and a Pro Bowler to boot on top of them thar apples....

[Boltnut]

you dont need 30 million to sign draft picks..... last year like most years was around 10-15 million...depending on how mny picks yooy hazve we have ONLY 5.... so LOWER than typical......so we have alot of mov=ney to spend!

It will cost us about $13 million to sign rookie draft picks. It will cost us another $5 million to sign a practice squad... and another $12 million for in-season free agent signings (due to injuries). About $30 million total.

OTC has us @$62 million under the cap... but they haven't accounted for Josh Harris, De'Shawn Phillips, Dalvin Tomlinson, and Keaton Mitchell yet. I'm sure they will backload Tomlinson and Mitchell a bit. Even then, it's ************ to say that those 4 will count $12 million more against the cap.

That leaves us $18-20 million more to spend... enough to sign a decent-priced free agent after draft cuts.

[Bolt4Knob]

It will cost us about $13 million to sign rookie draft picks. It will cost us another $5 million to sign a practice squad... and another $12 million for in-season free agent signings (due to injuries). About $30 million total.

OTC has us @$62 million under the cap... but they haven't accounted for Josh Harris, De'Shawn Phillips, Dalvin Tomlinson, and Keaton Mitchell yet. I'm sure they will backload Tomlinson and Mitchell a bit. Even then, it's ************ to say that those 4 will count $12 million more against the cap.

That leaves us $18-20 million more to spend... enough to sign a decent-priced free agent after draft cuts.

At this point of the off-season, draft picks will cost NET to the cap about $5m, PS is about $5m but Popper always estimates around $8m for inseason - so under $20m actually

The Chargers still have well over $25m of NET cap space when all the recent signings, draft class, and other costs are taken into account

Hortiz could even give Tuli an extension and use some of that money
And Hortiz still never cut Dupree - which for me, never made sense. But he had to make sure they had Edge 3

[YAC]

It will cost us about $13 million to sign rookie draft picks.

Curious where/how you are coming to that number, Nutty. I've got 8.4 mil. My tally below.

Here I'm using the 2026 rookie pay scale numbers from SpoTrac.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cba/rookie-scale


DraftCapHit.jpg

[Bolt4Knob]

Curious where/how you are coming to that number, Nutty. I've got 8.4 mil.

Here I'm using the 2026 rookie pay scale numbers from SpoTrac. My tally below.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cba/rookie-scale


DraftCapHit.jpg

8.4 is actually salaries to rookies with signing bonuses
net to the cap subtract (885k x 5) since the roster is over 53 noe

[Charge!]

8.4 is actually salaries to rookies with signing bonuses
net to the cap subtract (885k x 5) since the roster is over 53 noe

see!... Hortizhasplenty of space!.... its about who they want!

[YAC]

The Rookie Pool is the total cost in cap dollars that a team needs to sign its rookies in the summer. The cap space required to do this is less than the rookie pool. This is because every draft pick signed will replace a player already counting against the cap.

Good catch Steve. It's easy to double-count when dealing with the cap.

It's almost impossible to track an exact and accurate available dollar value right now. SpoTrack and OverTheCap don't consistently (or can't consistently) inculcate all the signings. I now see that SpoTrack has yet to include Harris, Lance, Perryman, Phillips and Tomlinson. Complicate it further in that when they are added in...their contracts will replace minimum salaries.

Then when you think you've got it figured out...you remember: The cap has different rules during the offseason from the regular season. Mamma Mia/Oy vey/holy crap!


Can say this much with certainty:

• Chargers currently have 65/66 players under contract
• However you account it, whatever source you look to the Chargers have top-five cap money, perhaps the most or second most.
• Hortiz has kept his powder dry and stacked high. Whether that will translate to improving the roster sufficiently in '26, '27...an open question. I like it more than I don't.

[YAC]

Spotrac has the total rookie pool at $8,437,208 - rookie cap is $4,897,208

So it's actually even better than I calculated then, and that much more encouraging over Nutty's numbers. Let's PARTY!

Our rookies combined salaries: $8.4 - $8.7 mil
But because those salaries replace 5 nominal salaries: the actual hit for the rookie class is a mere: 4.3-4.8 mil.

Same for the five recent FA signings Spotrac has yet to integrate. Good news again: The total salaries added will need to be factored down to accommodate the salaries replaced.

Great stuff, but my head hurts trying to think this through.

[Bolt4Knob]

Good catch Steve. It's easy to double-count when dealing with the cap.

It's almost impossible to track an exact and accurate available dollar value right now. SpoTrack and OverTheCap don't consistently (or can't consistently) inculcate all the signings. I now see that SpoTrack has yet to include Harris, Lance, Perryman, Phillips and Tomlinson. Complicate it further in that when they are added in...their contracts will replace minimum salaries.

Then when you think you've got it figured out...you remember: The cap has different rules during the offseason from the regular season. Mamma Mia/Oy vey/holy crap!


Can say this much with certainty:

• Chargers currently have 65/66 players under contract
• However you account it, whatever source you look to the Chargers have top-five cap money, perhaps the most or second most.
• Hortiz has kept his powder dry and stacked high. Whether that will translate to improving the roster sufficiently in '26, '27...an open question. I like it more than I don't.

The Chargers this off-season have always had plenty of cap space. Even now, I think they are about $28m of NET cap space -- so rookies, in season costs have all been included. $28m of net cap space can be as much as $33-35m of contracts

28m would cover AJ Brown- straight up. Especially if Bud Dupree is released.
Now I don't think they will trade for AJ Brown -but he has the funds to do it. I am just not sure what player is out there to get at this time.