Pickin’ Bolts: A Comprehensive Look at Chargers’ OL
The Chargers may have set out to overhaul their OL this off-season as much as they could, but they didn’t tell us. However the new league year kicked off in March followed almost immediately by the open of the free agency signing period, then in late April, the draft, and lastly by the second period of free agency (really it never stopped, but post draft the heat kicks back up a notch as team address positions they could not fill in the draft), and Chargers made a bunch of seemingly little moves. And now we’re left with quite different group of guys and a more hopeful expectation heading into the 2016 season.
With that in mind, let’s analyze the San Diego Chargers OL position-by-position and player-by-player. But first we’ll examine each of the OL roster moves this offseason:
Off-season OL roster moves:
On Monday, March 7, 2016 the Chargers signed Right Tackle Joe Barksdale to a 4-year, $23.5 million contract. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent just a couple of days later.
While the deal didn’t become public knowledge for a few days, on Wednesday, March 9 the Chargers restructured King Dunlap’s contract. The Chargers shaved $1.2 million off his previous $4.5 million guaranteed amount though he can earn an additional $1.7 million in bonuses based on health and playing time.
On Wednesday, March 16, the Chargers re-signed veteran backup, Chris Hairston to a two-year deal.
Next up, on Friday, April 29, Day two of the draft, the Chargers drafted USC Center Max Tuerk in the third round. The following day the Chargers drafted Michigan State Guard, Donavon Clark in the seventh round.
Later on Saturday, April 30, the Chargers announced they had come to terms with the following un-drafted free agents (UDFA) OL:
- OT – Tyler Johnstone, Oregon
- G – Sebastian Johansson, Marshall
- G – Mike McQueen, Ohio
- C – Spencer Pulley, Vanderbilt
Lastly, on March 7th word leaked out that the Chargers had come to an agreement with G/C Matt Slauson. On March 9th, those rumors were made official.
In addition the drafted and UDFA rookies the Chargers also have the following veterans on their roster:
- G/C Trevor Robinson
- G/C Chris Watt
- T Tyreek Burwell
- G/T Kenny Wiggins
So unless I’m missing someone, the Chargers currently have 16 O-linemen on their 90 man roster. Once we get to the regular season, teams are only allowed to carry 53 players on their active roster. On game days teams only dress 46. Teams typically dress 7-8 OL. The Chargers will probably carry at least 9 OL on their 53 man roster. They’ll probably sign/keep 1-2 more on their scout team roster.
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