Tag: DJ Chark

Chargers hosted WR DJ Chark on visit

The Chargers need to add to the wide receiver room.

The Chargers hosted free agent wide receiver DJ Chark on a visit, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.

Los Angeles is thin at the position after the departures of Keenan Allen and Williams and they seem to have some interest in Chark, who is one of the few notable veterans available.

Chark spent the 2023 season with the Panthers after signing a one-year deal last offseason. He caught 35 passes for 524 yards and five touchdowns in 15 games.

A former second-round pick by the Jaguars, Chark’s best season came in 2019. That year, he amassed 73 receptions for 1,008 yards and eight scores en route to earning a Pro Bowl berth.

Chark played with the Lions in 2022, totaling 30 catches for 502 yards with three touchdowns.

The Chargers’ goal at wide receiver is to get younger and faster, and Chark has plenty of juice, having run a 4.34 40.

Former Panthers WR DJ Chark reportedly visits Chargers

The Chargers are reportedly trying to zero in on yet another former Panther.

Bradley Bozeman and Hayden Hurst might have themselves from familiar company out west pretty soon.

According to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, wideout DJ Chark visited the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday. The former Pro Bowler spent the 2023 campaign as a member of the Carolina Panthers.

Prior to landing in the Queen City for a year, Chark spent four of his NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. A second-round pick from the 2018 draft, the Louisiana State University product went on to amass 147 receptions for 2,042 yards and 15 touchdowns over 43 games in Duval.

Chark then signed on with the Detroit Lions in 2022. His lone season there resulted in just 11 outings, in which he caught 30 balls for 502 yards and three scores.

The Panthers reeled in Chark last March, to the tune of a one-year, $5 million pact. He appeared in 15 games for Carolina—totaling 11 starts, 35 catches, 66 targets, 525 receiving yards (second-most on the team) and five touchdowns.

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Cardinals named best landing spot for speedy free agent WR

PFF says D.J. Chark’s best fit would be with the Cardinals. Chark has length, speed and had a 1,000-yard season in 2019.

The Arizona Cardinals need help at receiver. They have seen Hollywood Brown depart in free agency and Rondale Moore shipped off in a trade. They added Chris Moore, who had 22 catches last season.

While the free agent market is lean, the Cardinals are the best landing spot for one talented receiver who remains unsigned.

PFF says the Cardinals are the best place for former Carolina Panthers receiver D.J. Chark, one of the site’s top 20 remaining free agents available.

Chark has struggled to separate at the intermediate and deep levels in recent years, and inopportune drops also plagued him a bit over the tail end of the 2023 campaign. That said, he still brings field-stretching ability and should be more productive in any other offense besides Carolina’s.

Chark is 6-foot-3 and 200 with elite speed (he ran the 40 in 4.34 seconds coming into the NFL in 2018). He had a 1,000-yard season in 2019 and made the Pro Bowl but has not been great since.

He has not made it through a full season healthy yet in his career. Last season with Carolina, he had 35 catches for 525 yards and five touchdowns. His 771 offensive snaps played were the most for him since 2019.

If he joined the Cardinals, he would immediately become the most accomplished receiver on the roster. Their current projected top three receivers have never reached 600 yards in a season. The only player who has is Zach Pascal, who twice had 600-yard seasons for the Colts. He had four receptions for the Cardinals last year.

Chark has been disappointing in his career, but he has length and speed, two things that will find him success in Arizona’s offense.

He would make a nice fit, especially on a cheap deal.

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

 

D.J. Chark details ‘toxic’ environment that doomed the 2018 Jaguars

Former Jaguars receiver DJ Chark shared a couple stories about the “toxic” locker room he walked into in 2018.

When DJ Chark was picked by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2018 NFL draft, he joined a team fresh off a trip to the AFC Championship. But in his four seasons with the Jaguars, the team won just 15 combined games.

So how did a team loaded with talent, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, fall apart so fast?

In an appearance on a podcast hosted by Marlon Humphrey of the Baltimore Ravens, Chark said things were a mess behind the scenes in Jacksonville.

“When I first got there, there was times where — this might be like OTAs — the d-line would be beefing with the corners,” Chark said. “The linemen are like ‘we’re getting all these picks and takeaways because we’re getting to the quarterback.’ And the corners are like ‘Y’all getting these sacks, because we’re covering everybody.'”

Perhaps the biggest personality in the locker room at the time, Jalen Ramsey, took to social media to deny Chark’s claim.

Later, Chark detailed another small issue that snowballed into something more in the locker room.

“I remember two people arguing over who uses the handicap shower,” Chark said. “The handicap shower always had a little seat you can shower in, you can take the seat. A player claimed that, ‘This is my shower.’ So when somebody else used it, it was a problem.”

After the 2018 season, the Jaguars parted with Malik Jackson and Tashaun Gipson, Ramsey was traded during the 2019 season, and A.J. Bouye, Calais Campbell, and Yannick Ngakoue were all traded in 2020.

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2024 NFL Free agency: The most underrated offensive players

2024 NFL Free agency: The most underrated offensive players (via @NFL_DougFarrar):

When the new league year begins at 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 13, the NFL’s legal tampering period will already have gone on for two days, and several top-tier free agents will be off the market… hypothetically, of course.

There are multiple levels to free agency, of course. The big names and best players are generally picked off as quickly as possible, and then, it’s musical chairs for the best of the rest — and this where smart teams will have their eyes on the ideal value guys who can come in without a great deal of fanfare and solidify positions of need.

These are the players we’re choosing to focus on here. These players are not at the top of most free-agent list for the 2024 league year, but make no mistake — they can be key contributors to any team they’re on.

We’ll begin with the most underrated impending free agents on offense.

DJ Chark listed amongst most underrated offensive free agents in 2024

Is DJ Chark one of the most overlooked players in free agency this offseason?

Despite the preseason optimism, DJ Chark’s 2023 campaign with the Carolina Panthers didn’t turn out how he probably hoped it would. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the open market should be turning him away.

The former Pro Bowler, even after the underwhelming year, has been listed amongst Touchdown Wire’s most underrated offensive free agents of 2024. Editor Doug Farrar writes the following of Chark, who he believes might’ve fared much better in any other offense:

Carolina’s passing game was a bit of a dumpster fire last season, but that didn’t affect Chark statistically, except in catch rate. He caught 35 passes on 62 targets in 2023 for 525 yards and five touchdowns, and if you were to adjust that for any functional offense, the totals would be higher. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Chark projects well as a WR2 in any system where he can use his toughness, route acumen, and nose for the sideline to create explosive plays. You can ask the Green Bay Packers about that.

Green Bay would answer by telling you that they were present when Chark had his most productive game of 2023. He notched season-highs across the board—amassing 98 yards and two scores off six receptions in the tight 33-30 loss.

As he did last spring, Chark may have to find himself another one-year prove-it deal. But unlike last spring, it probably won’t come from the Panthers.

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Bears could be planning to load up at wide receiver this offseason

NFL insider Adam Caplan believes the Bears will add at least two wide receivers this offseason to bolster the position group.

Free agency is just a few days away, and the Chicago Bears should be one of the more active teams when it comes to improving their roster, specifically at the wide receiver position. The Bears only have three receivers under contract who played meaningful snaps (DJ Moore, Tyler Scott, and Velus Jones Jr.), and just one of them (Moore) made a significant impact during the 2023 season. Adding players to the position during both free agency and the draft should be a priority, and it sounds like that could be the plan.

Adam Caplan of Pro Football Network recently released a mock draft following the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, where Chicago selected quarterback Caleb Williams at No. 1 and wide receiver Rome Odunze at No. 9. Neither pick is surprising at this stage, and mock drafts aren’t the end all, be all, but it’s what Caplan said about the Odunze pick that should have fans excited about the Bears’ strategy.

“We’re told that the Bears are planning to add at least two wide receivers this offseason, and this area is around where Odunze — who our sources say isn’t too far behind Harrison in grades from around the NFL — could be selected.

During our talks with NFL sources at the Combine, there was a growing sense that fourth-year WR Darnell Mooney would be playing elsewhere this coming season, which would leave the door open for adding Odunze here.”

From what Caplan is gathering, the Bears will be looking to add multiple wide receivers this offseason, which could come from free agency, the draft, or both. Given the Bears still have around $44 million in cap space following the Jaylon Johnson franchise tag, they can afford one of the better free agent wide receivers on the market. Someone like Curtis Samuel, Tyler Boyd, or DJ Chark could be added as a solid WR3 while the Bears draft a star prospect like Odunze or Malik Nabers in hopes of them becoming an impact player opposite Moore. They could also find a way to trade down and target one of the players in the tier below, such as Brian Thomas Jr., Adonai Mitchell, Keon Coleman, or Troy Franklin.

There are a few different avenues general manager Ryan Poles can take, but it seems all the roads will wind up ending with the Bears revamping their wide receiver room. Adding more playmakers to a team that most likely will have a rookie quarterback under center next season isn’t a bad plan.

Top 12 remaining free-agent wide receivers

Tee Higgins and Mike Evans are now off the table. So, who’s left?

Sorry, Carolina Panthers fans. There will probably be no Tee Higgins and definitely no Mike Evans in your team’s immediate future.

But that doesn’t mean they still can’t sign a worthwhile wideout next week.

Here are the top 12 remaining receivers who are slated to hit free agency:

Projected market value for Panthers’ top pending free agents

Here are a few numbers for a few of the Panthers’ pending free agents:

There’s been quite a bit of talk about numbers this week, specifically in regards to outside linebacker Brian Burns. But how do the cap experts see the digits panning out?

Here, per Spotrac, are the projected market values for the Carolina Panthers’ top pending free agents: