There's officially less than a month until all of the veteran players report to The Bolt for Chargers' training camp. Following OTAs and minicamp, several position and roster battles are still up in the air. This offseason, the Chargers will have training camp, three preseason games, and a joint practice with the 49ers to determine some key aspects of their 2026 personnel usage.
Without any further ado, let's get into the four starter level battles that will have to be determined when the pads come on in July.
The four Chargers position battles to watch for in training camp.
1. Left Guard
Four of the Chargers' starting offensive line spots have been decided. Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt will return to the tackle spots after season-ending injuries in 2025. Tyler Biadasz and Cole Strange were key free agent acquisitions to play at center and right guard respectively.
The spot that we're not sure of right now is left guard. Three candidates stand out in terms of having a possibility to win the job. The obvious candidate is second-round pick Jake Slaughter. He's already had first-team reps at guard early this offseason following the team selecting him in the 2026 NFL Draft. The coaching staff has maintained that they're confident in his center to guard transition.
The only question with Slaughter is the experience. He did not play guard in college. He had two guard reps at the Senior Bowl that did not go his way. Once the pads come on, there will be pressure on Slaughter to make quick progress in development at the position in a fairly short period.
Slaughter should be considered the favorite considering the draft capital the Chargers used on him in addition to the front office and coaching staff's backing. But if Slaughter can't perform at an adequate level in camp, there are two other options. Kayode Awosika also got first-team guard reps this offseason. Trevor Penning battled an injury earlier in OTAs, but is reportedly healthy now per HC Jim Harbaugh.
2. Tight End
Charlie Kolar, Oronde Gadsden II, and David Njoku will all play significant roles. But the question is snap counts and the exact margins in playing time. Considering what they paid Kolar this offseason in addition to his blocking ability being the best in the room, it's probably a safe bet that he'll be the overall inline TE1.
But Njoku will probably split time between inline and F TE usage. The signings of multiple blockers probably allows Gadsden to play more of the F role specifically. All of them will play.
How much each tight end will be used probably depends on the week to week gamescript. But training camp could serve as a key data point in determining snap counts earlier on in the season.
3. Safety
The spot next to Derwin James specifically is for the taking. The back to back All-Pro will likely play at all three levels of the defense. For the last two seasons, James has played the majority of his snaps in the slot. That makes the competition for second safety more important. Elijah Molden likely has the incumbent spot there in the rotation. But veteran safety Tony Jefferson has played very well since unretiring and will compete for it.
Fourth-round draft pick Genesis Smith and second-year safety R.J. Mickens are also names to watch in the rotation in terms of how much playing time they can secure early. Mickens reportedly has had a good offseason so far while Smith flashed during minicamp.
4. The returner spots
Derius Davis has been the teams' primary returner for both kicks and punts the last two years. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to recreate the All-Pro level success he had in 2023. Part of that is injuries in each of the last two seasons. But the return game hasn't been great even in weeks where he was healthy. It cratered in 2025 as the Chargers as the Chargers were 26th in yards per kickoff return and 29th in yards per punt return.
Outside of Davis, other players who practiced returns in minicamp included Omarion Hampton, Keaton Mitchell, Kimani Vidal, Devonte Ross, and JaQuae Jackson. Brenen Thompson had previously participated in returner drills during OTAs but was injured on the first day of minicamp. So he should be expected to be in the conversation to potentially return as well.
This feels like the first year Davis will have to fight for his top returning spot duties against some quality competition.
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