LA Chargers safety Rayshawn Jenkins is a free agent this season and there is no guarantee that he is going to return to the team in 2021. Aside from a few bad games, Jenkins actually put together a quite solid 2020 season and with his age, he is going to be a coveted safety on the free-agent market.
While Jenkins is not going to get a massive offer from anyone, it would not be surprising if he does get priced out of LA with the other free agents that the Chargers potentially re-sign or bring in. The top-two priorities in free agency are Hunter Henry and Michael Davis.
Jenkins has done a good job replacing the injured Derwin James the last two seasons, but with James (hopefully) coming back healthy in 2021, I could definitely see a possibility in which the LA Chargers let Jenkins go to the highest bidder.
If that is the case, here are four potential players that the LA Chargers could replace Jenkins with.
1. Nasir Adderley/Alohi Gilman
The first option is to simply stay in-house. This is not the most intriguing option as Nasir Adderley played awful last season and Alohi Gilman doesn’t appear to have a high ceiling and didn’t really play much last season.
He did look good in the chances he got in Week 17 against the Kansas City Chiefs, though.
The hope here would be twofold. First, the LA Chargers would be hoping that James returning would have a positive impact on Adderley at the free safety position. Adderley has potential and we were all super excited when he was drafted, he just has not reached that potential.
The other hope is that Brandon Staley’s new defense would put Adderley in a position to succeed. That, mixed with a returning James and the natural improvement he will see in year three, could make Adderley a deserving replacement.