{"id":922619,"date":"2026-06-18T23:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/922619\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T23:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:39:15","slug":"how-tuli-tuipulotu-is-approaching-contract-talks-with-the-chargers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/922619\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tuli Tuipulotu is Approaching Contract Talks With the Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"

He posted a career-best 13.0 sacks<\/a> and 23 quarterbacks hits, recording three multi-sack games including a massive 4.0-sack performance in Week 4 against the Giants.<\/p>\n

Tuipulotu also racked up 49 total tackles to go along with 20 tackles for loss, three passes defensed, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.<\/p>\n

Pro Football Focus credited him with 17 run stops, which tied for the eighth-most among all edge rushers last season.<\/p>\n

But perhaps one of the biggest areas of breakthrough for the 23-year-old last year came from his emergence as a leader<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s something Chargers Defensive Coordinator Chris O\u2019Leary<\/a> noticed in his return to the team this offseason.<\/p>\n

“The maturity. I think that’s part of being in the league for two years, three years, doesn’t happen for everybody, but it happens for the right type of guys,” O’Leary said. “For Tuli, it’s been the same.<\/p>\n

“The maturity, he’s still got the humor to him and he’s still got the same personality, but there’s a level of seriousness and level to his approach,” O’Leary continued. “He’s in the meeting room and he has a good time, but he’s also extremely focused on the task at hand.<\/p>\n

“He goes on the field and he’s got his personality showing,” he added. “You can tell the intentionality, detail, aggressiveness to which he attacks everything, to me that’s what’s really improved for him.”<\/p>\n

It also goes without mentioning how big of a factor the future Hall of Famer Khalil Mack<\/a> has been for his development since entering the league.<\/p>\n

Tuipulotu was fired up for Mack’s return this offseason once again and told a funny story of how he continues to show him respect.<\/p>\n

“It’s a blessing, I’m going to say it every time,” Tuipulotu said. “It’s funny you bring that up too, cause today I was carrying his helmet around because I keep trying to remind him that he’s my vet still.<\/p>\n

“He doesn’t like it when I grab his helmet, but I’m still going to do it,” he said with a smile.<\/p>\n

As the 23-year-old has ascended over his time in the NFL, the conversations with Mack have developed as well.<\/p>\n

“It’s learning but it’s also just having a conversation with him,” Tuipulotu said. “I can actually, I’m not saying I’m at his level, but I can have a conversation with him when it comes to football.<\/p>\n

“Like what we see on the field, what we’re getting from offenses and stuff,” Tuipulotu added. “We’re getting there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He posted a career-best 13.0 sacks and 23 quarterbacks hits, recording three multi-sack games including a massive 4.0-sack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[98782,37,241,7,34,38,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":["post-922619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-chargers","tag-2026-offseason-editorial","tag-app-homepage","tag-chargers","tag-football","tag-homepage-cp","tag-homepage-headlines","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleschargers","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116773752870943188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922619","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=922619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}