The Los Angeles Chargers were frustratingly silent at the trade deadline.
Now, they did attempt to trade Daiyan Henley to the Denver Broncos—but that deal got rescinded after their division rival discovered additional issues with Henley's physical. The Chargers ultimately declined to re-negotiate the deal, losing the two draft picks that Denver sent over in the first place for Henley.
But outside of that, none of their other expiring contracts seemed to be truly involved in late-stage discussions at any point on deadline day. For a team that 0-8, it's a relatively confusing outcome.
Joe Hortiz, in his recent comments on the trade deadline, chalked it up to the lack of real offers the Chargers received for those players:
“No one put together any packages that blew us away or that inspired us to continue,” Hortiz said, “and frankly, not a lot of calls on individual players. There were a couple.”
Fair enough. If the Chargers weren't getting calls about players like Donte Jackson, Denzel Perryman, Dalvin Tomlinson, and David Njoku—all on expiring deals—then it's hard to fully blame the front office for its lack of activity on that front.
But now those players are left needing to revive their value on a team whose season has essentially already gone to waste. It's a tough spot to be for any veteran, but especially for Jackson—whose place in the Chargers' secondary is as shaky as ever entering Week 10.
Donte Jackson saw a resurgence with the Chargers—but he's going to need to prove his worth over the back half of this season
Under this regime, and especially under Jesse Minter, the Chargers have done an excellent job at identifying and maximizing their talent in the secondary, taking players on cheaper deals or in the middle rounds of the draft and finding a way to make them viable in their zone-heavy scheme. Both Tarheeb Still and Cam Hart are examples of this. So is Jackson.
Jackson, before coming to the Chargers, may very well have been on his way out of the league. After six seasons with the Carolina Panthers, he had a particularly woeful year with the Pittsburgh Steelers, playing 82% of the team's defensive snaps but failing to find any sort of consistency in outside coverage. The Chargers took a flyer on him as a rotational piece next to second-year corners Hart and Still in 2025, and over the course of 17 games, he justified that gamble wholeheartedly.
There were times last year where Jackson was the best corner on the Los Angeles roster, tallying seven PBUs over the course of the season and allowing completions on just 48.9% of his targets—the lowest mark of his career.
But things haven't gone that way in 2026. Jackson has now essentially played in a total of just three full games while dealing with a concussion and a hamstring injury. And things haven't looked great for him when he's been in the rotation. He's missed two of his 12 total tackle attempts on the season. He's allowed nine receptions on 14 targets for 198 yards, and his blown play on Tank Dell that led to a touchdown in Week 9 against the Houston Texans was one of his lowlights of the season.
The credit goes to Chris O'Leary and the rest of the Chargers defense for maintaining a more-than-viable coverage plan without one of their primary options in the fold. But for Jackson, this level of performance could make it tough to find real suitors this offseason.
Perhaps Los Angeles ultimately elects to bring him back. Still and Hart will be entering the final years of their respective rookie deals in 2027, and barring a major investment in the draft, the Chargers will still be in need of an extra rotational corner this offseason. But given the investments they still need to make on the offensive side of the ball, it's hard to think that's anything close to a guarantee.
The trade deadline didn't bring Jackson a new situation or a fresh opportunity. If he wants to find his next shot at a true rotational role in the NFL, he's going to need to lay the groundwork in Los Angeles over the remainder of this campaign.
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