The Chargers offseason has nearly come to an end.
After a slew of solid acquisitions via free agency and the draft, their 90-man roster is becoming clear. When taking a glimpse at their roster, they’re talented from top to bottom.
However, there are still positional groups that have question marks over them. One of them is the left tackle position. After trading away Russell Okung, Los Angeles failed to find his replacement.
The decision to bring in a rookie quarterback in Justin Herbert, and elect to not get him a viable blindside blocker is questionable.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell concurs.
Barnwell ranked all 32 team’s offseasons and analyzed their moves. Signing or drafting a left tackle is something that he believes L.A. should have taken care of.
Instead of trading up for and drafting linebacker Kenneth Murray, the analyst thinks the Chargers should’ve stayed put, selected a middle linebacker in the middle rounds and used their second-round pick to take a tackle like Ezra Cleveland.
I would have stayed put and trusted that I could find a middle linebacker in the middle rounds or in free agency to rotate with Denzel Perryman. The Chargers likely wouldn’t have been able to find a plug-and-play left tackle in the second round, but adding someone like Ezra Cleveland as an option would have left them in better shape than moving forward with Sam Tevi, Trent Scott and Trey Pipkins.
Addressing the linebacker position was a need this offseason, and Los Angeles had their eyes solely on Murray to fill the room out and get a Day 1 contributor, which is why they moved up 14 spots to get him, sacrificing their third-round pick.
“Off-ball linebackers just aren’t that hard to come by, and the Chargers essentially valued Murray as a top-15 pick by sending their second- and third-rounders to move up and acquire him. Murray has to turn into a Pro Bowl-caliber player for this move to work,” Barnwell said.
Los Angeles is banking on their in-house options, and they’re hopeful that the new offensive scheme and offensive line guru James Campen will help mask any deficiencies. It’s a high risk, high reward situation to rely on Sam Tevi, Trey Pipkins, Storm Norton or Trent Scott.
If they don’t feel comfortable with their guys after all, Jason Peters, the veteran tackle, remains a free agent.
“While Peters has been popularly linked to a return with the Eagles, L.A. is the best possible landing spot for the 38-year-old tackle. The moves this organization made this offseason suggest it’s trying to win now, even as it retools at quarterback. Peters wasn’t at his Hall of Fame best in 2019 and probably won’t be again in 2020, but he would be a massive upgrade on the likes of Tevi, Scott and Pipkins.”