There were early rumblings among Chargers fans that the team should trade for Dexter Lawrence when it was revealed he was on the market. Lawrence was ultimately traded to the Cincinnati Bengals, and the price tag explains why the Bolts were probably never in the market to begin with.
Cincinnati traded the No. 10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft for the 28-year-old defensive tackle. As talented as he is, the Chargers were never going to match that offer, nor should they have. That's a steep price to pay for someone whose best football very well could be behind him.
The Chargers aren't burned by the fact that they weren't in the Lawrence market, but they certainly are burned by the trade itself. This trade makes it even less likely that the Chargers' ideal first-round pick, Olaivavega Ioane, makes it to No. 22.
How the Dexter Lawrence trade torches the Chargers' chances at Olaivavega Ioane:
There are multiple factors in play. First, the rival component.
Lawrence now finds himself in the AFC North and it's a wake-up call for any team in the division with a weakness on the interior. This shines a direct spotlight on the Baltimore Ravens, who were already considered one of the top landing spots for Ioane.
Pre-Lawrence trade, there was a world in which the Ravens convinced themselves of another prospect in the first round with the intention of taking a guard in later rounds. The Lawrence trade snaps Baltimore back into reality and makes the hole at guard even more glaring.
There's also the Giants of it all. New York could certainly use more guard depth, but it never made sense to take Ioane as early as the No. 5 pick. Now, with the No. 10 pick in the arsenal, the Giants can take a difference-maker in the top five and follow it up with the best guard in the draft at No. 10.
Either way you spin it, the odds of Ioane falling outside of the top-20 went from slim to almost nonexistent. That's not to say that miracles can't happen in the draft, just look at Derwin James falling to No. 18 in 2018, but it's pretty hard to imagine the same fate for Ioane.
Thus, it's officially time for Chargers fans to give up on the dream and consider other options. Whether it's a less-exciting guard or another position altogether, it almost certainly won't be Ioane thanks to the Giants.
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