Hunter Henry is the LA Chargers‘ biggest free agent this offseason and is the best free-agent tight end available this offseason. There are going to be other teams attempting to sway Henry away from Los Angeles and the Bolts should be doing everything in their power to re-sign him.
The narrative heading into the 2020 season was that the Chargers could really only afford to re-sign one of Hunter Henry and Melvin Ingram, and whoever had the better season would be the bigger priority. Henry had the better season and is much younger, so he definitely has a huge advantage.
The Chargers re-signing him is far from a guarantee, though, and with a limited amount of cap space, I would not be surprised if Tom Telesco does not want to offer the $9.73 million salary that Over the Cap evaluates Henry at.
Austin Hooper got $42 million over four years last offseason, expect Henry to get a very similar number — four years, $36-42 million.
That is a lot of money but it is absolutely worth it for the LA Chargers. It is imperative that the team re-signs Hunter Henry. Here is why.
1. Hunter Henry proved to the LA Chargers that he can stay healthy
Before the season even began I was writing about how Hunter Henry is not as injury-prone as the narrative suggested. Henry had one major injury (torn ACL) and outside of that, he was playing more than people gave him credit for.
Per the article I wrote before the season, Henry was one of 11 tight ends to have three seasons with at least 12 games and 10 starts since 2016. He also has played at least 75 percent of the team’s games in every season outside of his torn ACL season.
But still, I get why that narrative existed and there is a reason why the team franchise tagged him — they wanted Henry to prove that he could stay healthy, and he did.
Henry did miss the last two games of the season but it had nothing to do with being injury prone. Henry was placed on the COVID-19/reserve list, something that the team cannot really hold against him when it comes to evaluating his injury history.
It really is that one season that is hurting his overall image and games played.