{"id":851444,"date":"2026-04-03T15:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851444\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:33:18","slug":"chargers-compared-to-bengals-ripped-by-execs-for-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851444\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers Compared to Bengals, Ripped by Execs for NFL Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> fans can feel justified in their disappointment with the team right now:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everyone else sees it too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the Chargers approached NFL free agency with nearly $100 million to spend, most didn\u2019t think they would have one of the lowest cash spends in the NFL when all is said and done. Mike McDaniel is in town to go all-in with Justin Herbert, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apparently not. The Chargers signed Tyler Biadasz before free agency started<\/a>, but then took a shockingly quiet path through the open market before a draft where they don\u2019t even have a full class\u2019s worth of picks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ho-hum performance in a win-now window has some comparing the Chargers to other conservative teams like the Cincinnati Bengals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chargers accused of being too timid compared to actual contenders\u00a0\"Los<\/p>\n

Jim Harbaugh | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Mike Sando<\/a> of The Athletic recently polled anonymous executives and similar about each NFL team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The things said about the Chargers aren\u2019t exactly glowing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One NFL exec told Sando that, now that other NFL owners have become more aggressive with increasing salary caps and the usefulness of trades, it makes it hard for teams like the Chargers to keep pace:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you have the owners who say, \u2018No, I want to go for it,\u2019 it becomes really hard for the teams who are passive to win big. If you\u2019re the Chargers or the Bengals and you\u2019re gonna play this thing passive, yeah, you\u2019re going to compete with the Ravens right now and the Broncos right now, but in two years, it\u2019s gonna be a different team that passed you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sobering yet fair take. The Chargers are hanging their hopes on good health and McDaniel being a big solution. But hope isn\u2019t really a plan and McDaniel probably wouldn\u2019t say no to more roster upgrades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a telling comment from an exec, per Sando: \u201cTheir quarterback is making $24 million (in base salary) this year, and they are going to be the lowest cash spending team in the league. Take advantage of this and get good players, even if it\u2019s just on one-year deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the crux of the argument Chargers fans make, especially when looking at what appear to be two obviously lackluster guard spots again. They have droves of cap space, but couldn\u2019t have done more, even on a short-term basis?\u00a0<\/p>\n

None of this urges the Chargers to go be reckless and ruin future years. But the win-now window is so obviously now, that the almost aw shucks approach to the roster feels wildly stubborn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign Up For the Chargers Daily Digest – OnSI\u2019s Free Los Angeles Chargers Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Chargers fans can feel justified in their disappointment with the team right now:\u00a0 Everyone else sees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851444","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-losangeles","13":"tag-losangeleschargers","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116341507879237650","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851444","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=851444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}