{"id":767322,"date":"2026-02-21T18:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767322\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T18:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:59:15","slug":"big-questions-ahead-of-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767322\/","title":{"rendered":"Big questions ahead of free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES — The 2025 season ended in a familiar spot for the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>. It concluded with another disappointing playoff loss — bringing more questions about Justin Herbert<\/a>\u2019s ability to lead a team to a postseason victory — and another offensive coordinator fired.<\/p>\n

The Chargers made significant changes to the coaching staff, hiring former Miami Dolphins<\/a> coach Mike McDaniel as the team\u2019s new offensive coordinator. He will be tasked with changing the narrative around Herbert. They also hired Chris O\u2019Leary, who was the safeties coach in 2024, as the new defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

It could be a transformative offseason for the Chargers beyond just the coaching staff. Los Angeles is projected to have the third-most salary cap space in the NFL going into free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve just got to continue to evolve and continue to grow,\u201d general manager Joe Hortiz said last month. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what the offseason is for. Time to look at things internally and look externally to see how you can get better in what you do, your processes, the players you have here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are three things big questions facing the Chargers:<\/p>\n

Will the Chargers release right guard Mekhi Becton?<\/p>\n

The Becton experience went terribly in 2025. Becton, who signed a two-year deal worth up to $20 million after winning a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>, was supposed to upgrade one of the league\u2019s worst interior offensive lines.<\/p>\n

Instead, he ranked as the 49th-worst guard in pass block win rate (91.2%) and the third-worst lineman (127th) in run block win rate (63.4%).<\/p>\n

Becton played just 72% of snaps in 2025 and played 100% of snaps in only six games. He missed two games, one with a concussion and another because of a knee injury. (Becton sat out the Chargers\u2019 final regular-season game with other starters.) He was also regularly rotated in games; a move the team said was to protect him from injury.<\/p>\n

At his end-of-season news conference in January, coach Jim Harbaugh said he hadn\u2019t talked to Becton and that the priority then was to fill out the staff.<\/p>\n

In an interview with ESPN in November, Becton delved into his personal frustrations with his performance this season and with how the team is managing his health, which he described as being \u201cdone a different way\u201d than he is used to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been what I wanted,\u201d Becton said. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t what I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision on Becton will likely come soon. He is due a $2.5 million roster bonus on March 13 and another $1 million bonus on March 15. If the Chargers release him, they would save $9.7 million against the cap and accrue a dead money charge of $2.5 million.<\/p>\n

Will the Chargers sign a top free agent?<\/p>\n

Hortiz has been clear since he arrived in Los Angeles in 2024 that he doesn\u2019t believe that building a team through free agency is conducive to long-term success. His philosophy, learned with the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> under former GM Ozzie Newsome and current GM Eric DeCosta, is building through the draft and adding depth through low-risk free agent deals.<\/p>\n

He has maintained that mentality in practice through his two seasons, as the Chargers have mainly kept to low-cost one-year deals in free agency and later rewarded those who have overperformed, such as defensive tackle Teair Tart<\/a>, who signed a three-year contract extension worth up to $37.5 million last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I don\u2019t want to spend recklessly,\u201d Hortiz said. \u201c… If you chase perceived needs in free agency, in the draft and more often than not overpaying or making a mistake. So, we do have to be calculated. We have to be smarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hortiz, however, has shown that he\u2019d make somewhat of a big swing for a player he\u2019s familiar with. That was clear when he traded safety Alohi Gilman<\/a> and a fifth-round pick for Ravens edge rusher Odafe Oweh<\/a> and a seventh-round pick in October. Oweh was a 2021 first-round pick who Hortiz evaluated.<\/p>\n

With that example, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see the Chargers make a push to sign Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum<\/a>, one of the top projected free agents and a player who Hortiz had a hand in selecting in the first round of the 2022 draft. Linderbaum was the league\u2019s second-best pass-blocking center in pass block win rate (97.2%). Last season\u2019s Chargers starter, Bradley Bozeman<\/a>, ranked 30th (92.5%).<\/p>\n

What will the Chargers defense look like?<\/p>\n

The Chargers had one of the league\u2019s best defenses under former defensive coordinator Jesse Minter.<\/p>\n

While injuries decimated the Chargers offensive line in 2025, it was Minter\u2019s defense that kept this season from completely unraveling. The unit kept games close and low scoring, allowing the offense to be merely average — or at times just good enough — to stay competitive.<\/p>\n

The Chargers hired O\u2019Leary, who got his start in coaching under Minter as a graduate assistant at Georgia State in 2014 and 2015, when Minter was the school\u2019s defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary ran a similar scheme to Minter\u2019s as the defense coordinator at Western Michigan, where his unit ranked ninth in the FBS and second in the Mid-American Conference in scoring defense (17.4 points allowed per game).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really focused on taking what we\u2019ve built and the foundation that\u2019s laid and taking it to another level,\u201d O\u2019Leary said at his introductory news conference.<\/p>\n

Whether that happens will rest largely on the Chargers pending free agents. L.A.\u2019s edge-rushing group was the backbone of this defense, but Oweh and Khalil Mack<\/a> are set to be free agents, and Tuli Tuipulotu<\/a> is eligible for an extension.<\/p>\n

If the Chargers don\u2019t find a way to either get both Oweh and Mack back or replace them with players of equal caliber, O\u2019Leary will have his work cut out for him in taking over one of the league\u2019s best defenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to fight to keep as many players as we can and see where it goes,\u201d Hortiz said. \u201cBut certainly just had the conversations and try to get it done and if it doesn\u2019t work out, you have to have a plan to pivot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — The 2025 season ended in a familiar spot for the Los Angeles Chargers. It concluded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,92645,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-767322","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-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers-sports-football-team-team-statscom-357","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangeleschargers","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116110161610374606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767322","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=767322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}