The Los Angeles Chargers are poised to have a highly active offseason. With their cuts of Mekhi Becton and Will Dissly earlier this week, they surpassed the Tennessee Titans for the most cap space in the NFL.
They immediately leveraged this in their signing of Tyler Biadasz, who was eligible to sign before the official start of free agency because he was released by the Washington Commanders. They will need to continue to be aggressive in order to finish establishing their offense for 2026, including filling out their two open guard spots.
With a new, innovative offensive coordinator coming in in Mike McDaniel, Los Angeles must do everything in its power to revamp its offense. This starts, undeniably, with the run game.
Per Daniel Popper of The Athletic, the Chargers secured another key piece of their offensive attack on Friday, extending an ERFA tender to running back Kimani Vidal in addition to signing Jaret Patterson and Kendall Williamson to extensions.
#Chargers placed an ERFA tender on RB Kimani Vidal and signed RB Jaret Patterson and S Kendall Williamson to extensions.
— Daniel Popper (@danielrpopper) March 6, 2026
As expected, Kimani Vidal will be back with the Chargers in 2026
The ERFA tender, which can be utilized on players with less than three accrued NFL season whose contracts have expired, is almost a routine move at this point. It makes perfect sense to extend this for Vidal, who emerged off the practice squad in 2025 and took on a bona-fide RB2 role as the Chargers dealt with injuries.
With both Najee Harris out for the season and Omarion Hampton missing a large swathe of games with an ankle injury, Vidal stepped up when Los Angeles most needed him to.
Between Weeks 6 and 13 in Hampton's absence, Vidal amassed 569 yards and three touchdowns on 131 rushing attempts, tacking on 13 receptions for 122 yards in that span. When Hampton returned, Vidal still provided premium value as a complementary back.
With both backs available, the Chargers run game looked active, capitalizing on the explosive playmaking of both players. It was a no-brainer, therefore, to bring Vidal back for 2026. The ERFA tender means that he will play on the league-minimum salary.
There still remains a chance Los Angeles adds a third back to their RB room, one who can provide some special teams value and a change-of-pace, outside-zone skill set. Perhaps they ultimately grab this sort of player in the draft.
But for now, the Chargers have locked down Vidal for 2026, and he'll be a highly important player as they attempt to revitalize their offensive attack.