The Chargers have taken former Purdue fullback Zander Horvath with the No. 260 overall selection to round out their 2022 draft class.
Horvath mainly played running back as a Boilermaker, putting together 1,181 yards and 8 TDs on 268 carries with 68 receptions for 592 yards and 1 TD in 30 career games. He’s also an exceptional athlete for a backfield player, but his 4.61 40 is a clue as to why he’s going to be moving to fullback as a pro.
It’s an interesting projection for Horvath, who hasn’t actually played fullback before and broke his leg in September 2021. He’s healthy now, at least enough so that he went through testing on his pro day. He also does have the special teams upside teams look for from fullbacks. While he doesn’t figure to touch the ball often at his new position, his background as a true running back will give him a leg up as a runner. As a receiver, Horvath has soft hands and should provide a nice dump-off option for Justin Herbert.
It’s looking like a more and more difficult path to the roster for Gabe Nabers, who has seen LA draft a golfing aficionado (Zion Johnson), a meat smoking savant (Otito Ogbonnia), and now a player at his position this weekend. The more conspiratorial among us may view this as a concerted effort to phase Herbert’s best friend on the team out of a roster spot. While that’s probably not true, a camp battle between Horvath and Nabers will be one of the more hotly contested depth chart competitions of the offseason.