{"id":888094,"date":"2026-05-11T05:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/888094\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T05:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:51:16","slug":"chargers-rookie-jake-slaughter-embracing-transition-to-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/888094\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers rookie Jake Slaughter embracing transition to guard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated May 10, 2026, 8:36 p.m. PT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Following being selected by the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/los-angeles-chargers\/357\" data-autotag=\"a419627d-6dfd-46c4-8ebe-6ca8a0506ea7\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Chargers<\/a> in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft,\u00a0Jake Slaughter\u00a0is making it clear that his primary goal is to contribute, regardless of where he lines up. As the\u00a0Bolts held their rookie minicamp this past week, the conversation centered around Slaughter\u2019s move to\u00a0guard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;My thing is I\u2019m going to go out and\u00a0compete\u00a0and do everything I can to be the best version of myself,&#8221; Slaughter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While he became a standout at center for the Gators, Slaughter is no stranger to the guard position. He saw significant snaps there early in his college career. Slaughter also said that he had been getting in work at guard during the pre-draft process and his workload at the position has ramped up since arriving in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Making the transition from center to guard requires tactical changes in terms of pass protection and space management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;For me, it&#8217;s always the difference in space,&#8221; Slaughter said. &#8220;Spacing differences, footwork differences here and there. So it&#8217;s a fun challenge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Touted for his athleticism, Slaughter&#8217;s lateral mobility should allow him to excel at pulling and leading in space, while his high-level agility should enable him to mirror quicker interior pass rushers and efficiently engage second-level defenders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This skillset lines up with what offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel said he wants in his guards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cWe want to play a certain style of ball that is convicted, that dictates the terms, so there is a level of quickness,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for guys that can block people in space, where a lot of the big plays and the things that change games and scoring opportunities, where those occur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The competition for the starting left guard spot between Slaughter and Trevor Penning will be one of the most monitored position battles this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated May 10, 2026, 8:36 p.m. PT Following being selected by the Chargers in the second round of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[95878,241,7,1014,262,2444,2443,6,119277,97083,97084,95882,95946,97216,95942,97085,95896,95888,95895,95906,95883,96012,102142,95881],"class_list":["post-888094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-chargers","tag-accessfree","tag-chargers","tag-football","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleschargers","tag-nfl","tag-sourcechargers-wire","tag-sstssportsnflchargers","tag-sstsnchargers","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagcgr-sports","tag-tagjim-harbaugh","tag-taglos-angeles-chargers","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tagtrevor-penning","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116554385565038425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888094","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=888094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}