The Los Angeles Chargers have genuine reason to be optimistic for 2026.
After falling short in the Wild Card Round in their first two years under Jim Harbaugh, they now have an innovative offensive coordinator in Mike McDaniel who can truly weaponize their tools on that side of the ball. With the talent they possess on defense and one of the league's best quarterbacks in Justin Herbert, this should be a top-10 team in the NFL heading into 2026.
But fans and analysts alike have been disappointed with the way they've approached this offseason. Although they possessed the most cap space in the NFL just before the start of free agency, they were characteristically measured in their moves. They improved their offensive line depth and added two key pieces in Charlie Kolar and Keaton Mitchell.
Beyond that, however, they failed to make any truly difference-making moves along the interior of their offensive line. This sort of careful roster-building is something Chargers fans have become accustomed to.
But ESPN analyst Ben Solak pointed out an ugly Chargers truth in his recent rankings of the most-improved rosters in free agency. If Los Angeles falls short of contention yet again, fans should know exactly where to point the blame.
There's a real chance the Chargers' offseason moves work, but the results could be ugly if they don't
Solak has the Chargers ranked dead last, meaning he believes they've seen the least improvement this offseason. In one sense, this is an overly harsh evaluation. Both the Mitchell and the Kolar signings were strong moves. Solak's rankings also don't take the returns of Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater into account.
We can quibble about the placement here. But Solak makes a strong point about the Chargers' failures over the last two seasons.
"I still think the Chargers are quite a good team, but when they exit the AFC playoffs after getting dominated up front for the third consecutive season, I'll point to this month as the reason."- Ben Solak
Through two seasons under Harbaugh, Los Angeles has not genuinely felt close to a playoff win. They scored a combined 15 points in their last two Wild Card Round appearances. Considering this fact, it's reasonable to think the Chargers should have been more aggressive in improving their roster this offseason, especially in pursuing some of the top guards on the market.
It's not all doom and gloom here. Perhaps the Cole Strange signing works out. McDaniel seems to have faith in his abilities.
Perhaps they draft a guard in the first or second round who provides capable play right from the jump. Perhaps their defense doesn't regress under Chris O'Leary. Perhaps Herbert gets his first playoff win in what will be his seventh NFL season.
But if it doesn't work out, we will know exactly where things went wrong.