{"id":135098,"date":"2025-06-16T19:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T19:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/135098\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T19:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T19:26:14","slug":"chargers-edge-defender-predicted-to-break-out-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/135098\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers Edge Defender Predicted to Break Out In 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers need someone to replace the departed Joey Bosa, and former second-round pick Tuli Tuipulotu\u00a0could be the man for the job. Selected in the second round in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2023 NFL Draft<\/a>, the USC product had a promising rookie season. Appearing in all 17 games while making 11 starts, Tuipulotu finished his inaugural campaign with 4.5 sacks, 53 tackles, eight tackles-for-loss, and a 71.0 PFF grade. Playing under a new regime in 2024, he remained productive with 8.5 sacks, 42 tackles, 11 tackles-for-loss, and a 66.5 PFF grade.<\/p>\n<p>With Bosa released and landing with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bills\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/2025-nfl-all-breakout-team-predicting-footballs-new-top-players-at-every-position\" target=\"_blank\">Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus<\/a> believes Tuli Tuipulotu is one of the biggest breakout candidates in the league. In a recent article, the NFL analyst laid out his case for why he thinks a big season is inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTuipulotu playing regularly shouldn\u2019t be a newfound phenomenon given Joey Bosa\u2019s repeated injuries over the last few years, but the 22-year-old can now enter camp perceiving himself as a legitimate starter in a thin edge-rushing group,\u201d Locker writes. \u201cIf Tuipulotu cleans up the missed tackles \u2013 his 30.1% miss rate was fourth-worst among qualified edge defenders \u2013 then his production against both the pass and run should elevate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-236891\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Tuli-Tuipulotu-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Tuli Tuipulotu\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"  \/>Nov 17, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu (45) reacts after a missed 51-yard field goal by Cincinnati Bengals place kicker Evan McPherson (2) in the fourth quarter at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<br \/>\nPFF: Chargers Tuli Tuipulotu Will Break Out In 2025<\/p>\n<p>Khalil Mack is the unquestioned top option on the Los Angeles Chargers defensive line, but Tuli Tuipulotu has the opportunity to become a locked-in starter opposite the future Hall of Famer. As mentioned above, he must improve at finishing plays, but he\u2019s entering his age-23 season and still has plenty of time to improve. After making the playoffs in the first year of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/06\/13\/jim-harbaugh-names-ascending-players-in-press-conference-some-controversial\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Harbaugh Era<\/a>, the Los Angeles Chargers enter 2025 with Super Bowl aspirations, and Tuipulotu can help the team take the next step in a crowded division.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea \u2013 Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Chargers need someone to replace the departed Joey Bosa, and former second-round pick Tuli Tuipulotu\u00a0could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,5403,7,1014,262,2444,2443,6,10719],"class_list":{"0":"post-135098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-chargers-featured","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangeleschargers","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-tuli-tuipulotu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114694690333304844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}