Chargers' comp pick update makes baffling offseason look even worse

Compensatory picks have become a hot topic of debate for LA Chargers fans. General manager Joe Hortiz has made it abundantly clear how much he values the selections and it has bled into the team's operation in free agency.

Coupled with a disappointing free agency in which the Chargers failed to add much interior offensive line help, Chargers fans are starting to sour on the idea of compensatory picks as a whole. Sure, they are a nice added bonus, but a team of the Chargers caliber should be more focused on winning a Super Bowl, not getting an extra draft pick or two in the late rounds in a year.

The crown jewel of the Chargers' offseason seemed to be the projected third-round pick for Odafe Oweh signing with the Washington Commanders. Third-round picks are the highest a team can receive, and after getting a $100 million contract from Washington, Oweh was projected to net the Chargers exactly that.

But the situation has since changed. While Over The Cap's projections are far from final and can change based on playing time and incentives in the regular season, the projected pick for Oweh has dropped to a fourth-round pick. All that hoopla for a pick that will fall outside the top 100.

Chargers are no longer projected to get a top compensatory pick for Odafe Oweh

The projection for Oweh jumped down to a fourth-round pick thanks to Jaelen Phillips' deal with the Carolina Panthers. Phillips got more from the Panthers, bumping Oweh down the pecking order and getting the Chargers a lower pick as a result.

This is the difference between getting a pick at the end of the third round and the end of the fourth round. While valuable players can still be found at the end of the fourth round, there certainly is a difference and a stark drop-off in overall consistency from the end of round three to the end of round four.

What makes this so frustrating isn't the fact that the Chargers now have a worse pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. It's how this showcases how fickle compensatory picks are and how prioritizing them over current roster building can be a corrosive mindset, not a good one.

Obviously, Hortiz is trying to field the best product possible to contend for a Super Bowl. But it is also clear that the compensatory formula has been a tiebreaker far more than it should be. For a bad team that has no hopes of contending that is a perfectly fine mindset to have. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations, well, you have to sacrifice a mid-round pick in a year if it means more talent right away.

And that's where the biggest disconnect is between Chargers fans and this front office. Hortiz had the benefit of the doubt his first two years as he was building something new. We're now on year three of this, and it should be time for the front office to have a bit more urgency in the offseason.

But hey, now the Chargers are going to grasp onto that selection even tighter as they really won't want to lose the only compensatory pick they have to their name. Because that is how you build Super Bowl-winning rosters.