The 2025 NFL Draft is just hours away and it is shaking out to be one of the most unpredictable in recent memory. A rather thin first-round class has created polarization in the draft, giving LA Chargers fans no real idea what the Chargers are going to do with the No. 22 pick.
Certain positions are favored over others but it will all come down to the 21 players who are taken before the Chargers are on the clock. It could break in a great way for the Bolts, but it could also go sideways.
ESPN's Field Yates released his final predictions for the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, including insight and analysis from long-time draft insider Mel Kiper. In said predictions, the Chargers are selecting someone who has not been tied to the team at all leading up to the draft: Alabama guard Tyler Booker.
"Booker is definitely a hot name right now, as teams have gone back to his great tape. There are a few teams in the 20s that could use him on their offensive lines, including the Texans and Ravens. I've also been told to watch Kenneth Grant at this pick," Kiper wrote. "He shares a Michigan connection with Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, and, as I mentioned, Grant is getting some mid-Round 1 love right now. He might not even reach Los Angeles' pick."
Chargers select Tyler Booker in ESPN's final 2025 NFL Draft predictions
Chargers fans better hope that Kiper is right about Kenneth Grant going to the Chargers. When compared to Booker, Grant looks like a surefire home-run selection who would have a huge impact on the team's success in 2025.
This is not to say Booker is a bad player as he has the makings to be a solid guard at the NFL level. As Chargers fans have seen firsthand with Zion Johnson, using late first-round capital on a guard isn't the best wholistic roster building strategy. Typically, it's much easier to land talented guards later in the draft than it is other positions that warrant a first-round pick.
Booker ranks 29th on the consensus big board heading into the draft, so it would be a slight reach by the Chargers. With Johnson still on the roster and two players fighting for the starting center spot, reaching a tad for guard in the first round isn't the best move.
What makes this selection worse is who Yates predicts to go to the Green Bay Packers with the very next pick. Green Bay selects Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart, who would have a much bigger impact on the Chargers than Booker would.
Stewart was one of the biggest standouts of the NFL Combine and has all the makings to develop into a legitimate, every-down edge rusher. The Chargers would be hard-pressed to find someone as talented as Stewart later in the draft.
Finding a guard who can have a similar impact as Booker is not as difficult.