{"id":768499,"date":"2026-02-22T08:23:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/768499\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T08:23:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:23:40","slug":"chargers-2026-offseason-big-questions-ahead-of-free-agency-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/768499\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers 2026 offseason: Big questions ahead of free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kris RhimFeb 21, 2026, 04:30 PM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Kris Rhim is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN. Kris covers the Los Angeles Chargers, including coach Jim Harbaugh’s franchise-altering first season (https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/41068072\/los-angeles-chargers-2024-preview-jim-harbaugh-culture). In Kris’ free time, he lives his NBA dreams at men’s leagues across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

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

The Chargers made significant changes to the coaching staff, hiring<\/a> former Miami Dolphins<\/a> coach Mike McDaniel as the team’s new offensive coordinator. He will be tasked with changing the narrative around Herbert. They also hired<\/a> Chris O’Leary, 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

“I think we’ve just got to continue to evolve and continue to grow,” general manager Joe Hortiz said last month. “And that’s 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.”<\/p>\n

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

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

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

What to know for NFL free agency<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ranking the top 50 players available<\/a>
\u2022 Every team’s biggest decision<\/a> | Best fits<\/a>
\u2022 Franchise tag candidates<\/a> | Read more<\/a><\/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’ 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’t talked to Becton and that the priority then was to fill out the staff.<\/p>\n

In an interview with ESPN<\/a> 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 “done a different way” than he is used to.<\/p>\n

“It hasn’t been what I wanted,” Becton said. “It just wasn’t what I wanted.”<\/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

General manager Joe Hortiz, right, has historically been hesitant to pour money into free agents. Will that change this year for the Chargers?\u00a0Kirby Lee-Imagn ImagesWill the Chargers sign a top free agent?<\/p>\n

Hortiz has been clear since he arrived in Los Angeles in 2024 that he doesn’t 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<\/a> worth up to $37.5 million last month.<\/p>\n

“No. I don’t want to spend recklessly,” Hortiz said. “… 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.”<\/p>\n

Hortiz, however, has shown that he’d make somewhat of a big swing for a player he’s familiar with. That was clear when he traded<\/a> 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’t be surprising to see the Chargers make a push to sign Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum<\/a>, one of the top projected free agents<\/a> and a player who Hortiz had a hand in selecting in the first round of the 2022 draft. Linderbaum was the league’s second-best pass-blocking center in pass block win rate (97.2%). Last season’s 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’s best defenses under former<\/a> defensive coordinator Jesse Minter.<\/p>\n

While injuries decimated the Chargers offensive line in 2025, it was Minter’s 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’Leary, who got his start in coaching under Minter as a graduate assistant at Georgia State in 2014 and 2015, when Minter was the school’s defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

Get ready for the NFL offseason<\/p>\n

\u2022 Every team’s offseason guide<\/a> | Schedule<\/a>
\u2022 Top free agents<\/a> | Best draft prospects<\/a>
\u2022 11 trade proposals<\/a> | 32 big questions<\/a>
\u2022 QB market<\/a> | Overhaul tiers<\/a> | Draft order<\/a>
\u2022 Coach hirings<\/a> | Franchise tag candidates<\/a><\/p>\n

O’Leary ran a similar scheme to Minter’s 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

“We’re really focused on taking what we’ve built and the foundation that’s laid and taking it to another level,” O’Leary said at his introductory news conference.<\/p>\n

Whether that happens will rest largely on the Chargers pending free agents. L.A.’s 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’t find a way to either get both Oweh and Mack back or replace them with players of equal caliber, O’Leary will have his work cut out for him in taking over one of the league’s best defenses.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to fight to keep as many players as we can and see where it goes,” Hortiz said. “But certainly just had the conversations and try to get it done and if it doesn’t work out, you have to have a plan to pivot.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kris RhimFeb 21, 2026, 04:30 PM CloseKris Rhim is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN. Kris covers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-768499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116113323934111819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768499","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=768499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}