Welcome to the Friday edition of the Los Angeles Chargers’ free-agency reset.
This will be our final reset of 2025. The majority of league-wide activity for this year’s free-agency window is in the rearview as the week comes to a close. The Chargers are at 57 rostered players. They can roster as many as 90 players for training camp. Most of the open spots will be filled by their 10 scheduled draft picks and undrafted free agents. They can still take on a few more veteran contracts, and those moves will surely trickle in over the coming days and weeks.
As always, we will dive into all the relevant news items from Day 4 of free agency: The moves the Chargers made, the moves they did not make, the salary-cap situation and some remaining free-agent fits.
Moves the Chargers made
With two moves, the Chargers took their first steps toward replacing defensive lineman Poona Ford. General manager Joe Hortiz and coach Jim Harbaugh were forced to pivot after Ford agreed to a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Rams on Monday. The Chargers agreed to terms with two interior defensive linemen Thursday to add some needed bodies to the room.
The Chargers first agreed to terms with former Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand. That deal is for one year and up to $3.35 million, according to a league source. The Chargers then agreed to terms with former Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Naquan Jones. That deal is for one year, according to Jones’ agent. I am projecting that as a veteran minimum contract for $1.17 million.
Hand, 29, was drafted in the fourth round by the Detroit Lions in 2018 out of Alabama. He battled injuries in the early stages of his career, landing on injured reserve in each of his first five seasons, which also included stops with the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans. In Miami, Hand was able to stay on the field and resurrect his career. He played 16 games in 2023. And in 2024, he played a career-high 563 snaps and played in all 17 games.
Hand is very stout and tough to move as a run defender. Ford was excellent at not giving up ground against double-teams in coordinator Jesse Minter’s defense last season, and Hand has some of that in his game. He has solid play strength and showed on film that he can sometimes beat double-teams single-handedly against the run. Hand has flexibility as far as where he can play. For the Dolphins in 2024, he lined up from a 1-technique on the outside shoulder of the center all the way to 5-technique on the outside shoulder of the tackle. He has an aggressive and quick get-off at the snap both against the run and pass. As a pass rusher, Hand is more of a pocket pusher. There is still value in this skill set, and that play strength shows up as a pass rusher on film. But he is not likely to be a matchup advantage in one-on-one pass rush situations like Ford was.
Jones has similar positional flexibility to Hand, though he played some true nose tackle for the Cardinals last season, lining up directly over the center. Hand will bring some reliability as a run defender. Jones, meanwhile, has more pass-rush upside. He had perhaps his best game of the 2024 season — a three-pressure performance — against the Chargers in Week 7. He has a very sudden rip move that was successful in one-on-ones on the interior. But he lacks consistency with it. As a run defender, Jones is more of a penetrator, and he can create havoc in the backfield. In that sense, Jones and Hand should complement each other in run defense. Jones has a tendency to play a little bit upright, and as such, he does not play with great leverage all the time.
Replacing Ford with one player is going to be difficult. Perhaps the Chargers can find that type of impact interior defensive lineman in the draft. For now, it seems like they are trying to find different components of Ford’s skill set in two players. The Chargers were also able to bring back Teair Tart earlier this week, so they are starting to build viable depth in that room.
The Chargers have not swung big in free agency. At the same time, they utilized their considerable cap space by taking multiple swings at multiple positions. During last year’s free-agency period, the Chargers were tight against the cap. They took one low-cost swing at defensive line in Ford. They took one low-cost swing at cornerback in Kristian Fulton. This year, they took two swings at defensive line in Hand and Jones. And they took two swings at cornerback in Donte Jackson and Benjamin St-Juste.
The Chargers also agreed to terms with Taylor Heinicke to bring him back as Justin Herbert’s backup. The Chargers traded for Heinicke in August when they needed to upgrade over Easton Stick, who had a shaky training camp while Herbert missed time with a foot injury. Heinicke played 22 snaps last season, including 11 as an injury replacement for Herbert.
Taylor Heinicke is back to serve as Justin Herbert’s backup. (Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)
Moves the Chargers did not make
One player from last season’s Chargers roster moved on Thursday: Tight end Stone Smartt signed a one-year deal with the New York Jets, according to reports.
Smartt was a restricted free agent. The Chargers opted not to tender him ahead of the new league year. The lowest tender — the right of first refusal tender — would have cost the Chargers $3.2 million for 2025. That is a little steep for Smartt, who has useful skills as a pass catcher but was not good enough as a blocker to get on the field consistently last season. The Chargers could have signed Smartt to a new contract. Tight end Donald Parham Jr., for instance, re-signed with the Chargers in 2023 after the team did not tender him. But Smartt instead opted for New York.
The Chargers still have not signed a guard. There was no additional movement on the guard market Thursday. This is the last glaring item on the Chargers’ free agency to-do list. Brandon Scherff and Mekhi Becton are still available. If the Chargers can sign one of those two, I would consider this a pretty successful free-agency window — outside of losing Ford, which was a mistake.
Salary-cap situation
Two more official cap hits came in Thursday, via Over the Cap. Khalil Mack will count an additional $18 million against the cap in 2025. He also had $8.8725 million in remaining signing bonus from his previous contract that will hit the cap in 2025. This is what I was projecting, so no changes. Receiver Jalen Reagor, meanwhile, will count for $1.1975 million against the cap in 2025. I had been projecting $1.5 million, so a slight change.
I am still projecting nine cap hits …
• Jackson: $4 million
• Tart: $3.5 million
• LB Troy Dye: $2 million
• LB Denzel Perryman: $3.65 million
• St-Juste: $2.3 million
• WR Mike Williams: $4 million
• Hand: $2.2 million
• Jones: $1.17 million
• Heinicke: $4 million
Using these projections, here are my cap space estimates.
Projected total space: $43.92 million
Projected effective space (which includes draft pick compensation): $40.72 million
Projected spending space (which includes draft pick compensation and $8 million in-season budget): $32.72 million
Given where the roster is, I can see the Chargers adding between three and eight more veteran contracts.
Top remaining free agents
Guard has to be the priority. That is the biggest hole remaining. So we will focus our list there.
1. Brandon Scherff, G, Jacksonville Jaguars
2. Mekhi Becton, G, Philadelphia Eagles
3. Morgan Fox, IDL, Los Angeles Chargers
4. Teven Jenkins, G, Chicago Bears
5. Will Hernandez, G, Arizona Cardinals
6. Dalton Risner, G, Minnesota Vikings
7. Matt Pryor, G, Chicago Bears
8. Trystan Colon, G, Arizona Cardinals
9. Tyler Conklin, TE, New York Jets
10. Lucas Patrick, G, New Orleans Saints
(Top photo of Da’Shawn Hand: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
