\n Is it a position of need?<\/p>\n
The Chargers have a lot of experience among the linebacker room heading into 2026.<\/p>\n
Of course there’s Henley, who has been a mainstay of the defense, but there’s also Perryman, Dye and Phillips, all of whom have logged a significant amount of snaps over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n
It’s not a position that is a must-have in 2026, according to Reid, but it’s a valuable position that you want to continue to develop impact players.<\/p>\n
“It’s a position you always want to invest in, even if you don’t need any of those frontline guys,” Reid said. “You can develop somebody on special teams, or eventually you want them to come in and contribute down the line.<\/p>\n
“I think they do have a need at linebacker, especially if they want someone to develop behind Daiyan Henley or Denzel Perryman or somebody like that,” he added.<\/p>\n
The preseason will also be a big showcase for Colson and Wax, but as the draft analyst put it, linebacker is a position you can always add depth to.<\/p>\n
“You always can use some depth, and I think this is a great class to do that,” Reid said. “I think linebacker you can make an argument is one of the strongest positions in this year’s class from a depth standpoint.”<\/p>\n
\n Key Questions for 2026<\/p>\n
1. How did you evaluate Henley coming out and what have you made about his level of play through three years?<\/p>\n
“I loved Daiyan when he was coming out. I thought he was super underrated and should’ve went higher than what he did. I’m really happy he’s found a home with the Chargers and I think he’s really thriving there with them. I was a huge fan of him coming out and it’s really good to see him blossom.”<\/p>\n
2. What do you make of Colson, who has had some issues with injuries through his first two seasons, heading into Year 3?<\/p>\n
“Whenever you get to that third year in the rookie contract, you want to see them but unfortunately for him it hasn’t happened in those first two years. You’re hoping with the familiarity that he has with Jim [Harbaugh] and the scheme they’re doing there, you’re hoping he can make that big jump this year. I think they do have to protect themselves a little bit in case he doesn’t and you have to invest in a linebacker.”<\/p>\n
3. Who are some Day 3 targets that you think could fit the Chargers defense?<\/p>\n
“If they’re looking for a true MIKE, somebody like Deontae Lawson from Alabama, I think they would get him in the fourth round. I think he’s somebody that fits them really well as far as what they want to do from a traditional MIKE standpoint. Another is Bryce Boettcher out of Oregon, he’s one my favorites in the draft. I think he can go as high as the third round. Somebody who’s played MIKE, who’s played on the weak side, has a great story and baseball background. I think that’s something they’ll take a liking to as far as how smart he is and how athletic he is too.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is it a position of need? The Chargers have a lot of experience among the linebacker room heading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[116149,37,241,7,34,38,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-2026-draft-editorial","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-chargers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-homepage-cp","13":"tag-homepage-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleschargers","18":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116341691508471935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851521","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=851521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}