The Los Angeles Chargers offense, for the first time in recent memory, is relatively replete with weapons—at least in the context of Mike McDaniel's scheme.
Ladd McConkey, Quentin Johnston, and Omarion Hampton would be solid weapons in the arsenal of a great number of offensive coordinators across the NFL. But the success of this offense will come down to how McDaniel is able to leverage some of its peripheral pieces.
The Chargers, for example, likely overspent on Charlie Kolar relative to his market value, but he has a real chance to carve out a TE1 role in Los Angeles as a result of his blocking abilities. If Keaton Mitchell can provide strong complementary snaps with Hampton in the backfield, the run game suddenly becomes much more well-rounded.
But David Njoku, in particular, is a player that has largely been buried under the Chargers' more salient storylines as they near the start of the regular season. As he enters a one-year, $3 million deal with Los Angeles, the team needs him to be firing on all cylinders if they're going to maximize their tight end room and, by extension, their offense as a whole.
This is a prove-it year for Njoku. But he'll need to assert himself within the offense over the first couple weeks of the season if he wants to pave a path to a major resurgence.
David Njoku could be one of the Chargers offense's most sneakily important pieces heading into 2026
Even after the Chargers added Kolar this offseason, their decision to let both Tucker Fisk and Will Dissly walk this offseason left them with another need in the tight end room. As much as Oronde Gadsden II emerged as a pass-catching during his rookie campaign, his lack of pure in-line blocking abilities left a clear TE2 spot to be claimed on the roster.
Njoku represents the perfect middle ground between Kolar and Gadsden. He operated much more frequently as an in-line blocker with the Cleveland Browns last season after the emergence of rookie Harold Fannin Jr., but we know he still has gas left in the tank as a receiving threat. We're now only three years removed from his 81-reception, 882-yard campaign in 2023. Although he's lost a touch of his athleticism and his open-field dominance since that time, that skill set hasn't completely vanished.
But if he's going to carve out his fair share of targets in the Los Angeles offense in 2026, he's going to need to prove that on the field as soon as possible.
McDaniel is expected to lean heavily into multiple tight-end sets with the Chargers this season, and that, at the very least, guarantees that Njoku will have a path to major snaps. But in terms of targets, he'll be competing with Kolar and Gadsden from the very start.
Although Kolar doesn't have much on his NFL résumé in terms of pass-catching, the Chargers clearly believe he has more to be unlocked there. During his final college season at Iowa State, he caught 62 passes for 756 yards and six touchdowns. If Los Angeles can unlock even a fraction of that, Kolar has his place as TE1 essentially sealed.
Njoku is also facing pressure from behind in the depth chart. If Gadsden shows any improvement as a blocker this season, his dynamism in the open field could quickly convince McDaniel to elevate his snap share.
If Njoku struggles at all as a pass catcher, therefore, there's room for him to quickly be sidelined within the course of the offense—at least relative to what we know he's capable of.
But this Chargers offense will be at its peak when all three tight ends are operating at full capacity. There obviously aren't enough targets to go around to grant each player true TE1 status, but having a full arsenal of pass-catching and blocking tight ends that can be mixed and matched according to whatever schematic edge McDaniel can carve out will be one of Los Angeles' greatest assets this season.
That requires Njoku to prove over the first few weeks of the campaign, though, that he still has plenty left in the tank in both regards. It'll be a storyline to follow as the Chargers enter Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals.
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